Finally
2010 • Scholastic Press
Written by Wendy Mass

~ Book review by Laura Stewart

Meet Rory Swenson. In a few hours, her life will finally begin. Rory will be twelve. The day she has been waiting for her whole life. She will be able to get a cell phone, shave her legs, get an IM name, and more.

While she begins to check many things on her list of things she can do when she’s twelve, a new movie is being shot at her school. As many of her friends do too, she becomes an extra in the movie. There’s one catch- miss one shooting- and you’re out. For Rory this becomes a problem because it’s pretty hard to show up to shooting times when her red-eyed bunny Kyle R. escapes his cage every night and almost suffocates her by sitting on her face and scaring her. She tears of layers of skin when she tries to shave her legs without any help, and has to hide her legs in the shooting. She has an allergic reaction when she gets her ears pierced and has to wear a hat in the scene to hide her humungous ear. She couldn’t get her contacts out and had to wear an eye patch because she damaged her eye trying to get her contact out.

I like Rory because I can see her point of view. I can see why it would be the worst thing that could happen if you got a cell phone with two buttons on it: Home, and 911. Wendy Mass has a great view of a regular over-protected girl. She knows what it’s like, and in modern times- not 1960! Sometimes I feel like a lot of the books I read are older, and written a long time ago. I enjoyed this book because there were cell phones, Instant messaging, and movies. As I read I felt like Rory was just a regular girl that I could talk to, and that went to my school. I wanted to text her or email, or talk.

The author, Wendy Mass creates a fictional world where it is ok to mess up, it’s ok to be different, and it’s ok to be clumsy. This is grace. She realizes its challenging being twelve and as a twelve year-old myself I feel this is a message more writers need to give tween readers.

Much like Rory’s parents forgive her for her mistakes, the Bible tells us that Jesus forgives us for our sins, and our mistakes. This includes our clumsiness , even if she did buy a red eyed rabbit named Kyle R. (say it 3 times fast — Killer).

~ Laura Stewart

Laura is the newest (and youngest!) contributor to viaRenovo. She is a avid reader and writer. She loves imagining new worlds and writing about them with her friends. She has a strong interest in history and enjoys a quiet night sitting with dad on the couch watching the History Channel.