The book Semiprecious
by D. Anne Love takes place in Texas in the early 1960’s and is about a twelve
year old girl named Garnet Hubbard who is dropped off with her aunt, along with
her older sister, Opal, while her mom pursues her dream of becoming a singer in
Nashville. Even though her mom promises to come back for them as soon as she
can, the girls come to realize they’ve been abandoned in their aunt’s small
town in Oklahoma. In their new school, beautiful Opal falls into the popular
group right away, but Garnet struggles to fit in. When Garnet finds her aunt is
very poor and can barely afford to feed them, Garnet decides it’s up to her to
knock some sense into her mother and bring her home. This book is a story about
a girl who faces the challenges of near poverty, social acceptance, and self-identity,
all while trying to patch her family together.
D. Anne
Love does an excellent job writing this story. The language she uses is very
easily understood and is an accurate representation of how people talked in the
south in the 1960’s. It contains some bits of information that pertain to the
politics and problems going on in this time period, such as racism, communism,
and putting men on the moon. These topics aren’t the main focus of the novel,
but enrich the reader’s experience as they go through the storyline. People
aged 10-14, particularly middle schoolers, will especially love and relate to
this novel, but anyone is capable of enjoying this work of literature. Garnet
is a funny, relatable character that readers will have fun getting to know, and
the book causes the reader to question how they would react in Garnet’s place.
Overall, this book is absolutely worth having in the library collection because
not only will readers be absorbed in the plot of the story, but they will find
the characters pleasantly relatable and will be thinking about the book even
when they have finished. Lilia L.; Teen Reviewer