Twelve-year-old Trudy Mixer used to be the president of the most popular club at school, The Beatles Fan Club. Suddenly, she loses her best friend, Michelle, to the cool kids and everything starts to unravel. Her classmates start calling her by her real name (cringe), Gertrude. Then to top if off, The Beatles Fan Club has dwindled down to the nerdiest kids in Trudy's class. She is struggling to hold it together, but her world is falling apart. That is until The Beatles announce their new tour. Trudy will let nothing stand in her way now!
Children that are having trouble navigating socially and emotionally in junior high will relate to She Loves You. As a Beatles fan, I greatly enjoyed reading it, imagining myself as Trudy Mixer. Not only do I recommend this book and I recommend that kids have have The Beatles 1 album cued up to play the songs as they come across them in the book. You can never go wrong with The Beatles! ( )

If not for the Litsy Markup Postal Book Club I would never have read this book. But I am glad that this book was chosen. It was a lot of fun. A little slow to start, but it made for great conversation in my library who lived through the British Invasion.

This book is all about one girl’s quest to meet the Beatles. While she thinks it’s just for Paul, there is so much going on in the background of not only her life, but her friends lives as well that seeing the Beatles becomes this goal that will make life better for whatever reason.

Part of what made this book so slow for me is the first half or so is all about Trudy hating her name Gertrude and how to change peoples minds about her “old lady” name. This just gets old and annoying. However, using that as a backdrop for seeing her father's affection, and that rollercoaster that her life is not on, makes a nice discussion topic.

Overall I did enjoy this book. There were things that were thoroughly predictable (like the end), and things not expected (like lucky items), but it was a pleasant experience. Will I ever read it again… probably not. Will I ever recommend it for someone else to read...maybe. This is a very niche book. It’s not one I could just hand to anyone and say “you’re gonna love it” because I don’t think it’s true. But pair it with the kid that needs to hear it’s message and you might just hit the jackpot.
#NancyDrewChallenge #horses ( )

When I first saw Ann Hood’s new novel, She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I thought the cover looked a bit peculiar. I started to read, and in the first page, I realized it was a YA novel. I have too much admiration for Ann to give up, and I am so glad I did not. This fun story, of a girl obsessed with meeting Paul McCartney, brought back lots of memories when I first heard of the “Fab Four.”

I have read four of her novels, and all have been wonderful experiences. This YA novel proved to be as much fun as the others. Trudy Mixer, a young teen, hatches a plot to meet Paul, when her father’s gift of four tickets to a Boston Concert melts away, because he must fly to Japan on a business deal. Trudy hopes her mother can drive her and her girlfriend to the concert. The plan completely melted away when her mother fell and broke a leg. Trudy is the president of the Beatle’s fan club at her middle school. Getting to the concert becomes her number one priority. Trudy enlists the help of her last three members of the fan club, as interest in the Beatles is lost to a group of cheerleaders. Never the less, she persists in her plan to meet Paul.

Trudy likes to catalogue “things that have made” her happy. For instance, Hood writes, “The day I found a sand dollar on the beach” (1); and, the day Michelle whispered, “Do you want to be my friend?” (5); and “February 9, 1964. “My father and I watched the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show” (6). As only young girls at that age can do, she also devises a plan. Hood writes, “Ways to meet Paul McCartney: 1. Go to his house in St. John’s Wood in London and wait for him to come out. 2. Write to the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, and request a meeting with Paul. 3. Um…” (43).

The chapter numbers are followed by a Beatles’ song. “Baby, You Can Drive My Car” describes Trudy’s attempt to get her mother to drive her six hours away, despite the fact her mother rarely drives any further than local stores (84).

Trudy also suffers teasing, when the kids find out her real name is Gertrude. As is true with most teens, she seeks a “BFF,” and Michelle fills that slot. Here is the plan to finalize her friendship. Hood writes, “Here are things I know: 1. Michelle’s mother always drops her off at school on Wednesday mornings because that was the day Mrs. Bee worked in her father’s office. […] 2. Because Mrs. Bee had to be at the office by 8:30, Michelle got to school early on Wednesdays usually between 8 and 8:15. 3. No one liked to get to school early. 4. Therefore, Michelle usually hid in the library until the first bell rang at 8:30. 5. If I got to school by 7:59 and went straight to the library I would get Michelle all to myself for fifteen to thirty minutes” (65-66). We might have a budding stalker here.

Ann Hood has never disappointed me. And even though this was a Young Adult novel, I did enjoy the antics of Trudy, Michelle, and the other members of The Robert E. Quinn Beatles Fan Club.” Without actually spoiling the ending, I will tell you that Trudy and her friends had a wonderful evening. She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah! is a story any middle-schooler would enjoy. I suspect this story might be firmly based in reality. As the dust jacket points out, “Ann has loved the Beatles ever since she saw them on The Ed Sullivan Show when she was seven. Paul is still her favorite Beatle. 5 stars.

--Chiron, 10/24/18 ( )

I don't often delve into middle grade books but I am a big Ann Hood fan and I was gifted with her latest book, She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah), so I thought I'd give it a shot. Other than Hood's name on the cover of the book, I must admit to being completely the wrong audience for this novel. I am not even close to the right age (even my children are far past the age this is aimed at) for middle grade and I am not really a Beatles fan although I do know and appreciate their influence on the music that came after them. But I also know that Hood really knows how to write.

Trudy Mixer (please don't call her Gertrude) is the President and Founder of the Beatles fan club at her junior high, the first fan club in the entire state of Rhode Island. A wildly popular club in elementary school, all of a sudden, its 24 member high has dwindled to 4, the smallest it can be before it is no longer officially a club. It's hard that the three remaining members besides Trudy are odd but the most hurtful thing about the whole thing is the defection of Trudy's best friend Michelle to the Future Cheerleaders Club and her subsequent abandonment of Trudy for more popular girls. When Trudy's father, a workaholic who shares an interest in the Beatles with his daughter but otherwise doesn't give her the attention she craves, gets four tickets to the Beatles concert in Boston, Trudy is certain that this will restore her relationship with Michelle. Even this magic seems to fail so Trudy declares that she is going to meet Paul (her favorite Beatle) and that meeting him will change everything. How one junior high girl is going to meet her idol when even getting to the concert becomes questionable drives the novel forward.

Trudy's obsession with the Beatles allows her to rationalize her continued relationship with three unpopular kids. It is these three who stand together with Trudy, teaching her something about friendship, perseverance, and that her own problems aren't the only ones in the world. Hood uses the other club members to highlight several of the social issues of the 1960s and the impact they had on regular people: Vietnam and feminism, as well as love. While the book itself feels like a time capsule from 1966 given all of the exquisite time period details, Hood has also captured the universality of the pain and confusion and awfulness of navigating junior high, of trying to find yourself in an ever changing landscape of random popularity, never knowing entirely what will doom you to the devastating horror of being unpopular, what will lose you your long time best friend. The emotional upheaval and the magical thinking of junior high are absolutely spot on. The end to the book is both sweet and improbable but since you've long since started rooting for Trudy and company, it is forgivable. With Trudy as the narrator, the reader doesn't really learn much about the other three club members until quite late in the narrative when Trudy herself learns about them, looking beyond herself and becoming that little bit less absorbed in herself that allows her to open up to the idea of friendship with someone other than Michelle. A book about a Beatles obsessed 12 year old seems a little strange for today's middle schoolers but Hood's attention to detail and ability to draw the emotional reality of middle school might just make this more popular than I would expect. ( )

Trudy (NOT GERTRUDE!) is the president of the once-popular Beatles Fan Club, but her social status takes a plunge after April vacation when she loses her best friend to cheerleading and the club dwindles to four members. As an ardent fan, she is determined to regain her social status, as well as her father's attention, by meeting Paul McCartney. She is lucky enough to have four tickets to the Beatles concert in Boston, but her father's business trip means she has no one to go with and no transportation. However, she persists accompanied by the other Club members, and sets off to the concert in spite of the fact that she has never before ventured to Boston by bus and subway. With some detours and obstacles along the way, Trudy learns about friendship and perseverance. Although the ending is perhaps unbelievable, it is highly satisfying and touching. Ann Hood is obviously in touch with her twelve year old self and recollections of the 60's, and offers readers an engaging glimpse into her younger world. ( )