Review: It's Not Easy Being Mimi by Linda Davick

IT'S NOT EASY BEING MIMI

by Linda Davick

Beach Lane Books

Middle Grade Humor

176 pages

Meet Mimi! She’s a cat-loving, convertible-driving, bucket-cake-baking girl who loves living in the Periwinkle Tower with her best pals, Yoshi and Tonya. When the friends learn that someone new is moving into the building just before Thanksgiving, Mimi hopes it will be a girl just like her to share all of her hobbies and adventures. But the new neighbor is not what Mimi envisioned at all. And by Christmas, things have gone from iffy…to bad…to worse! Will life in the Periwinkle Tower ever be as fabulous as it was before?

MY TIDBITS

With tons of spunk and silly moments, Mimi pulls through every situation and somehow gets even the most difficult moments to smooth out...more or less, in her own way.

Mimi lives with her neighbors in a tower, each one with their own floor. She goes to school and drives her own car. When a new boy moves in, Mimi's not sure what to think. He's not the kind of person she'd hoped to have as a neighbor. At school, he's not any better. Somehow, Mimi's going to have to figure out how to handle the entire thing.

While there is a more serious message in these pages, this is not a serious book. Silliness and quirkiness spills from every page in the most delightful and unexpected ways. Mimi's life is anything but logical—she lives by herself with kids who live by themselves in their own apartments on each floor in a very skinny tall tower. They drive cars. They cook. They lead their own lives. But then, they go to school and are just like any other kids, having to deal with their teachers and mistakes. Neither do they behave like adults or those who live on their own. Granted, Mimi bakes cakes and they drive and do all those necessary things, but they are kids. Completely. It's silliness to giggles, and exactly what this age group dreams and loves.

The story fits well to the younger end of the middle grade range, and with 176 pages, might seem a bit thick. But it's not. The print is large, keeping the text on each page at a level which doesn't overwhelm. Every page carries an illustration or at the minimum, phrases in extremely large print to add funny emphasis. It's entertaining and holds humor high every moment. While the plot may lack, the fun takes over making a ridiculous and fun read.


And here she is...

Linda Davick is the illustrator of several picture books, including the New York Times bestseller 10 Trick-or-Treaters written by Janet Schulman; and We Love You, Rosie! by Cynthia Rylant; as well as her own Say Hello! and I Love You, Nose! I Love You, Toes!. She lives in San Francisco in a one-hundred-year-old house by the sea.