Valentino Chiarla Chiarla itibaren Rup Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, Indien
I didn't realize this book built on the history of Mayer Rothschild and his family, and that was an interesting discovery because I'd picked up a two-part history of the Rothschilds by Niall Ferguson just a few days before reading Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin. Those books along with a couple of others are suggested for further reading in the author's note at the end of the book. The Rothschilds don't seem like your average YA material, and the combination of history and fantasy creates a layered background. The book begins with Phoebe Rothschild realizing her current 7th-grade friends aren't really her friends. She breaks away from their "mean girls" mentality by asking Mallory Tolliver, a new girl, to be her friend. Their bond makes them like sisters, and the book quickly glosses over a few years to bring them up to high school. I have to say that this book's focus on a strong female friendship rather than a love triangle is something I really appreciate. Yes, there's some element of romance and a couple of boys as possible love interests, but I felt like that was all at the periphery. Mallory is hiding a secret about her true self and why she and Phoebe crossed paths at all, but I never disliked her for the deception. Werlin did a terrific job of making me understand Mallory's emotions and her struggle as she was between a rock and a hard place throughout the book. Phoebe was harder for me to understand. She was constantly trying to measure up to her family name and this expectation she felt from her mother, but I never felt like we were shown any of that from her mother. It was a lot of Phoebe stating it as fact, but her mom seemed much more understanding than Phoebe seemed to realize. I guess that's true for a lot of mother-daughter relationships. I also didn't understand Phoebe's attraction to Mallory's brother Ryland, but that actually worked for me because so much of Phoebe's interest in him is a result of glamour/magic. Extraordinary asks several interesting questions though I'm not sure any of them are explored as deeply as I would have liked other than the idea of friendships helping us to reach our full potential. What is the true measure of a person's worth? Does it matter more what the person thinks or how they're perceived by others? What makes a person ordinary rather than extraordinary? I'd love to see more of the faerie world that Werlin created to see the impact of the Mallory/Phoebe friendship on their future. The moments in the faerie realm didn't seem like enough, and that may be why the last third of the book grabbed me more than the rest.
This is a darling beginning school book. I love the looks on Llama's face.