Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman
Audience: Middle School and up (limited mature content)
Rating: A
Synopsis:
Julia always gets caught up in her best friend Ashleigh’s latest crazes. This often leads to a whole lot of embarrassment. But what will happen when Ashleigh’s newest obsession involves one of Julia’s loves: Jane Austin’s writing? It turns out that they end up crashing the fall dance at the local boys’ school. Of course there’s embarrassment, but there’s something else as well… both Julia and Ashleigh find their Mr. Darcy in the crowd. Unfortunately, both of their Darcys end up being the same boy.
Chatter:
(Spoiler Alerts! ) This is a great book! I already went to the author’s website (http://pollyshulman.com) and unfortunately, Polly Shulman isn’t planning on writing a sequel. (I think she should – I’d love to hear about Asheleigh’s next craze, the Irresistible Accountant’s baby-quest, and what happens next with Julia & Grandison).
Sequels aside, I love the story that was told in Enthusiasm. Julia and Ashleigh are quite the dynamic friends. All the characters in this book are well developed and intriguing. I’d love to hear more about all of them.
I think it’s great that Shulman managed to weave in information about my all time favorite author: Jane Austen, but I don’t think it’s necessary to be an Austen fan, or even to have read Pride & Prejudice to understand this book. I’d actually have liked more Austen references! I wonder what Grandison thinks about Julia’s favorite book?
My favorite part of the book was when Julia was coming up with new nickname possibilities for ‘Snip’ – Typooper?! That made me laugh out loud. There were lots of funny parts in this book, what was your favorite?
The ironic part of this book is that Julia recognizes the solution to her problem… when she reads about it in Romeo and Juliet: “The whole tragedy was so unnecessary! If Romeo and Juliet had just talked to each other, nobody would have had to die” (pg. 87). If Julia had just talked to Ashleigh about her feelings (or Grandison himself for that matter) then she wouldn’t have had to suffer for all of those months.
Questions:
What do you think Ashleigh’s next craze will be?
What could Julia do to improve her relationship with Amy?
Do you think that Julia will be more open & honest with Ashleigh in the future?
Keep reading!
-Paige
