I read Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Frederick. This book is about a girl named Truly Lovejoy, who is in the seventh grade. She lives in Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire. Her dad used to work in the military but he got attacked and lost an arm because of an IED (improvised explosive device) in Afghanistan. Her family calls it Black Monday because he use to be a fun dad but after Black Monday he turned into “silent man.” Since they were a military family they had to move often and they had finally settled in Austin, Texas. Until there grandparents needed him and truly’s Aunt True to run their bookshop for them because they were going to retire. This takes place in Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire around 2014.

Truly is incredibly tall, kind, and curious. She doesn’t like being super tall because she feels uncomfortable in school and also sometimes she gets teased. Truly is kind, because this small boy named Lucas Winthrop gets teased by kids especially Scooter Sanchez and Truly sticks up for Lucas. Truly is curious because she found a letter in a book and wanted to know more so she started the Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes. The PFPE are trying to solve the mystery.

I thought an interesting part of the book was when Calhoun asked Truly to dance at the Cotillion. It was interesting because at first they didn’t really get along and then at the end they become friends! I was really surprised. Another interesting part of the book was when Truly’s dad said “cross my heart, hope to fly” and then changes his ringtone to the theme song from The Magnificent Seven. After Black Monday he got rid of the ringtone and hated hearing or saying “cross my heart hope to fly”. At the end, Truly says “and that’s exactly how it all happened, absolutely truly, cross my heart hope to fly,” which is something no one has said since her father became silent man. This is a great way to end the book because it shows she is going to be okay after all.

 
This book was enjoyable because it had a lot of humor. Jokes appeared throughout the book. For example, Truly’s brother calls her funny names such as Truly Droolie, another example is Truly can be sarcastic which is kind of humor I enjoy. I made a lot connections to the book which helped me understand it more. I would recommend this book because it’s sarcastically funny which always makes a book better and her life is relatable to a kid my age! Humor lightens up everything and you just breeze through the book. In this particular book it’s good if you breeze through it because some parts aren’t super important to the plot of the story. There is another book in this series called Yours Truly which I haven’t read. I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. This book also has a mystery, but if I told you about it, it wouldn’t be a mystery!