thirstyTink Aaron-Martin has decided to write a book called The Encyclopedia of Me. True to its title, the book includes detailed entries about all sorts of things, arranged in alphabetical order. As Tink leads us through her life from A to Z, we get to know her brothers (see Aaron-Martin, Sasha Alexei (Lex) and Aaron-Martin, Sebastian (Seb)), her father, her mother, her best friend (see Anderson, Freddie Blue), her worst enemies, and her new neighbor (see Boy, Blue-Haired, Who Just Moved in Next Door).
This is a great coming-of-age story. Tink makes it through a realistic mix of serious and not-so-serious dilemmas, ranging from wiping out while trying to (skate)board to dealing with older brothers to having your first crush. Tink, often called the Peacemaker in her typically chaotic household, is witty and remarkable. Though her family often frustrates her, she does love them. As she comes to realize things about her best friend, her family, and her future, she takes the time to appreciate what she has and who she is, and she's not afraid to stand up for the people she cares about, or for herself.
Tink's mother is a redhead from America; her father, British, of African-Caribbean descent. When you get to Tink's entry about herself - which comes very early in the book, due to her last name - you learn what her real name is, how she feels about being "an exotic mystery of mixed heritage," and how she deals with people who ask her what she is:
When people ask me what I am, I usually say, "I'm a human being." Then when they say, "I mean, what RACE are you?" I say I am African while fixing them with a patented look that I like to call my Are You a Racist? Face.
Tink tells it like it is. Though she sometimes holds her tongue when her best friend does something she thinks is phony or out-of-character (or, y'know, when they fall for the same guy), she's always honest with herself, and honest in her narrative. She's a very reliable narrator.
One of her brothers is stinky; the other is autistic. That's just the way they are. Mostly, they're pains-in-the-neck, because that's what big brothers are, and she loves and loathes them equally.
Then there's Kai, her new neighbor, who is interesting and nice and confusing, because Tink thinks she kind of likes him, but her best friend has declared her like for him, and that means Tink can't like him, but she kind of does, and she thinks he likes her, too. I like the fact that Tink isn't boy-crazy, and that she's genuinely trying to figure out if she likes Kai, and how that might mess up her friendship with Freddie Blue. She describes it as "an awkward love love triangle where two of the points didn't even known they were part of the shape." (Page 133)
The writing is awesome. Check this out:
"Jealous" is also one of those words that does not fit its meaning. The real word for "jealous" should have a lot of k's and h's in it and hard sounds, like a mouthful of chewed glass. The word "jealous" sounds more like the name of a dessert made from Jell-O and something delicious. Unlike what jealousy actually is, which is the ugliest, worse feeling in the world. - Page 111
I'm more scared of karma than I am of anything else. Maybe all this is happening because I deserve to have bad stuff happen to me. Maybe I did something really awful once, and I don't even know what it was, and now it's all coming back to me like a nicely wrapped Christmas parcel full of sadness. - Page 118
On the difficulties of maintaining a friendship with someone who has changed and you might not like so much anymore:
It was like Freddie Blue and I were wrapped up together in strands like cobwebs, and no matter how hard I pulled (or how hard she pushed) to get out of the web, I was still in the web. And the web wasn't a bad thing; it was a web that I knew. And the web had been fun for my whole life! And I didn't want things to be different. Just being back at school made me want to crawl right back in and get firmly stuck in the place where I belonged. Which was with FB. Even if she was a bit spidery lately. - Page 180
I also really like a passage that takes place two pages before the end, but I won't quote it here because I don't want to spoil the terrific ending.
Complete with footnotes, cross-referencing, and the occasional stock photograph, Tink's encyclopedia has everything that it should.
I'd love to read Tink's list of twenty-six life goals. She references it early on, and reveals a few of the items on the list, but says it is "private and I'm already so embarrassed that my face is likely to melt and slide right off my skull," and while I wouldn't want to invade her privacy, it would have been cute to see that list on the endpapers after I reached the satisfying conclusion of the book. Then again, Tink lets us in on so much of her life and so many of her thoughts, she certainly deserves to keep some things private.
This book, though, you should definitely share. Give it to your middle school kids. I bet a good portion of them are prompted to write stories of their own afterwards. This would be a great book to use in both creative writing and autobiography courses. If I had found this book in my library as a kid, I would have checked it out and read it over and over again.
My favorite entries and random items include:
Aaron-Martin, Isadora (Tink)
Sparkly Unicorns and Happiness, which is an ice cream flavor offered at the ice cream shop featured in entry titled Ice Cream Incident, The
The bear photographs in the entries for Alaska and Norway, which have hilarious captions. (My pal Kristen shouldn't look at those pictures, though, because they would frighten her.)
Karma
Ballet, subtly dealt with throughout
The footnotes, especially those offering the readers prizes for interacting with the book and making accurate guesses, and other such comments that sound like something I would say (and my friend Christina can vouch for that!)
And remember:
If you say something with enough authority, people will believe you, whether you know what you are talking about or not. - Page 241
Additional notes and considerations:
Bonus points to Tink for getting her (nick)name from one of my favorite characters, Tinker Bell.
Tink's classmate Ruth should meet Jil! from the Matthew Martin books by Paula Danziger, because the first time Tink thinks of Ruth in the book, she thinks of Ruth! with an exclamation point because she is always exclaiming! About everything! All the time! As someone who uses her fair share of exclamation points when happy, Ruth, I give you bonus points, too.
I've added to The Encyclopedia of Me to two of my most popular booklists: Tough Issues for Teens and Middle School Must-Haves