Goodnight June by Sarah Jio
Book Blurb:
Goodnight Moon is an adored childhood classic, but its real origins are lost to history. In Goodnight June, Sarah Jio offers a suspenseful and heartfelt take on how the “great green room” might have come to be. June Andersen is professionally successful, but her personal life is marred by unhappiness. Unexpectedly, she is called to settle her great-aunt Ruby’s estate and determine the fate of Bluebird Books, the children’s bookstore Ruby founded in the 1940s. Amidst the store’s papers, June stumbles upon letters between her great-aunt and the late Margaret Wise Brown—and steps into the pages of American literature.
My Review: 4.5 stars
Goodnight June read like my own bedtime story: rich in imagination, a good story line, characters I loved and honors a childhood classic I hold dear to my heart, Goodnight Moon. I’m not sure if was the timing in which I read this book, but it definitely fell onto my plate just when I needed it. It was equally comforting to read both the epistolary segments between Margaret Wise Brown and Ruby as well as the current day struggles of the main protagonist, June. Sarah Jio does a great job weaving the storylines together while keeping the reader in suspense as to the fate of the beloved bookstore. Seriously people…what reader doesn’t love a book about saving a bookstore?
The diminished relationships of sisters were ever present in the book and made me want to pick up the phone just to hear my sister’s voice, which I did of course, several times. I loved the hidden letters and I only wish we all had an Aunt Ruby in our lives.
Finding your individual course of happiness, good vs. bad parenting, discovering love, learning to forgive, and keeping long held secrets are at the heart of this lovely book.
Quotes I liked:
What is childhood without stories? And how will children fall in love with stories without bookstores? You can’t get that from a computer.”
-“Stories are the air that you breathe, and that air is laden with sustenance and spirit.”
-“I dream of a garden where books grown on trees…”
-“History repeats itself, and if we don’t fight against it, we’ll do the same things our parents do.”
-“Keep your chin up, and when you’ve lost your way, look at the moon and think of me, for I believe in you.”
-“The truth is, my mind never shuts off. I think it’s wearing me out, actually. The mind needs rest, just as the body does.”
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