While small in size, this coming-of-age story was big in it's characters and messages. I will admit that the first several pages took some trying to get through, but nothing overly drastic. Once I was through those pages, I was so caught up with Sadie Ann's story, and Emily Sue Harvey's talented work, that I had this book finished in an hour. I did not have the privilege of reading Song of Renewal, Harvey's first book, but will be going back to read it,especially if it's as enjoyable a read as this book was!

This little book follows 12 year old Sadie Ann, a girl growing up in the 50s, as she recalls the many different "flavors" of her life that summer, just like slices of pies. That summer, Sadie Ann had to spend her time at her grandparents' home, among her many aunts and uncles, most of them close to her in age. Feeling a little confused and out of place, she learned many lessons along the way, some easy, and some a bit hard, as she tried to find her place among the family and in life.

Sometimes, life isn't always fair, and it takes the littlest of things to help us understand not only life, but ourselves, too. Through Emily Sue Harvey's flavorful words, and brilliant messages, I was a part of that coming of age time for Sadie Ann, and felt like one of the many aunts that she was around that summer. While not my all time favorite book, I still sing four star praises and highly recommend this to all. I'm sure you'll find the messages and flavors of the story to be as bold as I did, and will be come a fan of Emily Sue Harvey, just the same as I did. I'm anxiously awaiting the chance to read her third book, Homefires. ( )

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2011/03/flavors-by-emily-sue-harvey-book-revi...

In "Flavors", the narrator, Sadie Ann Melton, looks back from middle age to a particular period in her life when her summer was spent mostly at her grandparents' farm in South Carolina, with weekends with her parents after their live-in babysitter eloped. The author was 12 years old and her little brother was 4, and the extra income for her grandmother allowed her to buy a washing machine to help her with the huge amount of laundry generated by her large family (a total of 11 children, many of them still at home, and many aunts and uncles very close to Sadie Ann's age).

With many of the experiences and times described as having particular flavors, this reader (really a born country girl, now in the city), was easily transported back to country life, where you had to grab your own switches for your spankings, and the fields and woods beckoned you, where a coin could get you a bag full of candy, and where poverty often forced teens to drop out and go to work to help support the family.

Weighing in at only 120 pages, this was a fast read. Some of the prose felt "over the top" to me, and it feels more like a vignette a little deeper than a surface sketch, BUT I still "got it" and liked it. The family drama felt real, and the sudden loss of a family member, along with the stoicism of Sadie's grandparents, also brought to mind some of my own country cousins.

Altogether an enjoyable read, this one feels like a truly reminiscent novella that will likely take the reader back to their own childhood years, even if it's a totally different type of childhood.

QUOTES

What fun to dive into a passel of kids who looked and behaved remarkably like Ma and Pa Kettle's brood. No kid could have been happier than me at the turn of events.

The thing about Conrad was that he celebrated rather than tolerated me, as was the general regard thereabouts. How quickly my period of grace had expired. But with Conrad, I was totally okay. That was my first whiff of strawberry-flavored pleasure, a prelude to the age of teens.
Life was good.

"Nellie Jane," I whispered. "where's Frances?
She looked at me for a long time, sadness heavy in her gaze. Then she nodded to the platter of sausage and the bowl of ham and red-eye gravy.
"There's Frances," she said, puckering and quickly sniffing back tears.

Writing: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Plot: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Characters: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 3 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 3.25 out of 5 stars ( )