The List of Things that Will Not Change

Description

The List of Things that Will Not Change

Rebecca Stead

(Andersen Press)– hardback

At the top of The List of Things that Will Not Change Bea has written ‘1. Mom loves you more than anything, always./2. Dad loves you more than anything, always.’ Thereafter Bea clings to these truths, as the list, written in green pen grows longer.

The list is begun in the year that Bea’s parents separate, when she begins to shuttle between their two homes. Although she knows that she is central to their worlds, there is a lot to assimilate. While Jesse, Bea’s Dad’s fiancé and his sister, Sheila, are welcome additions, Bea worries about her mother. She knows that her mother’s face betrays her feelings, just like hers. Bea learns to hold back rather than act upon her worries, but it’s hard, especially when Jesse’s daughter, a potential sister, comes to stay. Bea wants this relationship so much. She wants to feel ‘like there’s someone else in [her] boat’. When she stays with her cousins at the lake, she’s alone, the moves between her parents are alone, and then there’s the constant exclusion from spelling test lunches.

The opportunity to read a book by Rebecca Stead, from Liar & Spy to First Light, is a celebration. The List of Things That Will not Change is outstanding- inward looking, considered, word perfect and recognisable. Bookwagon is overjoyed to recommend this wonderful book.