Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - review

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/mar/25/review-rainbow-rowell-eleanor-and-park

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Eleanor and Park is a book about a girl called Eleanor who is sixteen years old and lives with her mum and step-dad (who kicked her out for a year) and four brothers and sisters- Ben is twelve, Maisie is nine, Mouse (real name Jeremiah) is five and the baby- Richie Jr is Richie's and her mum's only child. She is the new girl at school in Omaha, Nebraska in the year 1986. Eleanor is shy and lonely but she sticks out like a sore thumb- with wild red hair and baggy mens clothes.

On the first day of school she sits next to Park the guy at the back of the bus, He always has his head stuck in a book and he wears black band t-shirts. Park collects comics for Eleanor to read and an ever growing stack of mix-tapes. Park is sixteen years old and tries to make himself invisible to everyone but Eleanor sees him straight away- he can't hide from her. He looks like his mum and argues with his dad and thinks life would be a whole lot easier if he could get his driver's licence so he could drive to school and not get the bus.

But all of this changes when he meets Eleanor- he gives her his seat and gradually they start chatting. Then one day he takes her hand- this is a massive step up from talking even though it may not seem so. Holding hands by the way is very intimate in the book "Holding Eleanor's hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat" says Park. The book is written from both of their points of view but in the third person. I have never hated a bad guy in a book as much as I hate Richie (Eleanor's step-dad).

The characters are very realistic, Eleanor is chubby and has curly and not in a good way-hair (I mean most characters in books aren't chubby and it makes me feel a little better that someone can love a girl like Eleanor as much as Park does). Park is half Korean and half Irish but like most people in Omaha he doesn't really know Korea or what it means to be Korean. He is very different from his little brother and his dad who are into sports, trucks and guns. Park doesn't see the point of sport and at the end of the book he starts wearing eyeliner. His mum is a beautician and very small and kind.

At the very end of the book Eleanor sends a postcard to Park, I won't tell you why because that would ruin it if you haven't read the book. All Rainbow Rowell says it that the postcard has three words. I like to think as a reader that those three words are "I love you" but it doesn't actually say. If you read the authors note you will find that Rowell doesn't give you any further clue as to what those three little words might be, she doesn't even tell her mother! She just says that she thinks most readers will hope they are "I love you" but I don't think even she knows!

Rainbow Rowell has written 4 books, Attachments, Eleanor and Park, Fangirl and Landline. I have read all of these apart from Landline and they are all absolutely amazing. They make me feel confident and happy but sad at the same time, they make me get excited and jumpy but also slightly dreading what is about to happen to these brilliantly created characters. I don't know about you but I get quite involved with books and feel the emotions on the page as if they are my own so in Eleanor and Park at the end when Eleanor has to leave Park I got quite upset. I love the way she writes normally in normal-ish situations. I think she likes to write set in the past-Eleanor and Park is set in the 80's and Attachments is set in 1999. Overall I think she is just a fabulous writer and I wish I could put words on a piece of paper like she does.

• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.

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