It held the audience captive, created discussion, allowed for introspection, and connected us to the main characters. It is the kind of book that an author should aspire to write. They didn’t like some of her choices, but they were firm and fair with her and, as a result, she saw herself more clearly.Įight Keys is a beautiful book. Her aunt and uncle guided her and supported her. I love how Elise came to her own conclusions. Even as adults, we can struggle to make and keep friends because we change. We don’t always know if they’re in our lives for the long term. People come into your life for different periods of time. The class had great discussions around different topics, such as: what do you do if you think a friendship is over? Do you always have to get along with a friend? What do you do when you are bullied? Has a friend ever changed on you so that you felt like you didn’t know them anymore? These are real things that I can remember dealing with in my teen years and I think they are things we still deal with as adults. There are parts of the book where we didn’t like her very much (my class and I) but the honest part comes from the fact that we know Elise doesn’t like herself very much at those moments either. She also gets to learn about the people who have raised her.Įlise is such an honest and real character. As she explores all of them, she gets to know the mother and father she doesn’t remember.
The most touching and heartwrenching part, for me from my parenting perspective, was that, knowing he was going to die, her father spent his final days putting each of these rooms together for her. Each room also gives her insight into where she comes from. The book follows her journey, as she unlocks each of the doors and discovers something about who she was, who she is, and who she could be. She discovers a key and eight doors in her uncle’s workshop. In the midst of all this, she is turning 12, which in itself can be life changing. She gets bullied mercilessly by the popular girl at school. She has a best friend who she thinks she may have outgrown. She lives with her aunt and uncle, who I wish I lived with because they’re real and tangible characters. Elise is a young girl who lost both her parents. It weaves together the themes of finding yourself, knowing yourself, experiencing loss, friendship, bullying, acceptance, and family.
Eight Keys, by Suzanne LaFleur, is beautiful. It just so happens that, this year, I have been incredibly fortunate to choose book after book that is amazing, moving, and captivating. I swear, I’m not the Paula Abdul of book reviews I do not think that every book I read is amazing and moving and captivating. Young adult fiction published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House
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