Eventown book cover
Eventown, written by Corey Ann Haydu, is a novel centered around an 11-year-old girl named Elodee. The story begins by illustrating Elodee's life in Juniper: the never-ending sighs in her house, her always-gloomy parents, and "friends" who look at her weirdly and don't invite her to their birthday parties. Her life wasn't always like this. Everything had changed a year ago. Something happened that day--something sad--and it hurts to remember. The dark cloud that has been looming over Elodee and her family since that day seems as if it will never disappear.
Until, one day, Elodee's parents announce that they will be moving to a new town: Eventown. At first, Elodee and Naomi aren't too happy about the move. There won't be any cars or TV. In other words, no fun! However, they both know that there needs to be a change. Something needs to change to shoo the sadness away. And their parents are smiling for the first time in what seems like decades. How can they argue when their parents look so happy?
When they arrive at Eventown, everything is perfect. The beautiful scenery, the ice cream, the neighbors, the school... But Elodee notices a strangeness among the perfectness. The way they only play "the Eventown Anthem" a dozen times every music class because it's the only song they have in Eventown... the way all of the girls doing gymnastics, her sister included, do the exact same routine the exact same, perfect way... the way her ice cream never falls over or melts no matter how long she waits... the way all of her cooking from the Eventown recipe book ends up perfectly delicious every time... Everyone around her seems to be in love with the perfectness, but Elodee thinks differently. Of course, it's kind of nice having everything work out the best way possible every time, but she misses the not-so-perfectness. Elodee misses Naomi's not-so-perfect flips that made the good ones more special... her wacky cakes and slightly burnt fried chicken... Even though these things before Eventown weren't perfect, they were so much more fun and special. But it seems like Elodee is the only one who thinks this. Everyone else seems to have forgotten this specialness. All of their memories before Eventown seem to have disappeared. And Elodee's are starting to fade too.
The author's message on appreciating imperfections stood out to me. I think our world today focuses too much on perfectness: getting perfect test scores, doing perfect pirouettes, getting first place... We often forget to appreciate the imperfect moments of our lives, even though they are the ones that make the perfect moments more special. Imagine the weather is perfect, every meal is delicious, and you never make a single mistake every day for the rest of your life. Sure, that would be nice, but these perfect things wouldn't be special anymore. I believe that imperfect moments are equally as important as perfect ones, because they are what make the perfect moments shine. And I think we, in the world today, should take a moment to stop and appreciate these imperfections sometimes.
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