The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls - by Julie Schumacher (Paperback)

About the Book

When four very different small-town Delaware high school girls are forced to join a mother-daughter book club over summer vacation, they end up learning about more than just the books they read.

Book Synopsis

I'm Adrienne Haus, survivor of a mother-daughter book club. Most of us didn't want to join. My mother signed me up because I was stuck at home all summer, with my knee in a brace. CeeCee's parents forced her to join after cancelling her Paris trip because she bashed up their car. The members of "The Unbearable Book Club," CeeCee, Jill, Wallis, and I, were all going into eleventh grade A.P. English. But we weren't friends. We were literary prisoners, sweating, reading classics, and hanging out at the pool. If you want to find out how membership in a book club can end up with a person being dead, you can probably look us up under mother-daughter literary catastrophe. Or open this book and read my essay, which I'll turn in when I go back to school.

Review Quotes

Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2012:
"The characters, especially the four girls, sparkle.... Smart and insightful."

VOYA, April 2012:
"Required summer reading never seemed so exciting before."

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May 2012:

"Schumacher, author of the compelling Black Box, deftly allows elements of The Yellow Wallpaper, Frankenstein, The House on Mango Street, and The Awakening to infuse Adrienne's thinking as she immerses herself in them and as her own story unfurls alongside them. The result is a story that explores the way books can and can't inform lives, as Adrienne's summer leads to some surprising, even tragic events; that makes this a natural for book-club discussion by reluctant and eager attendants alike."

About the Author

JULIE SCHUMACHER is the author of several highly acclaimed children's books. She is a professor of English at the University of Minnesota.