Concerning & Potentially Concerning Content

The major concern here that Christian parents will want to know about revolves around the twins who move in near the main character family. We are told they have two moms. While these two moms are never a key focus in the book there are a handful of mentions of them, with the longest being when the families initially meet. As we might expect in today’s culture, the book makes this feel like it is totally normal and fine. The second major concern is an interesting one. Throughout the whole book “luck” is a key and recurring theme. While that may not sound very concerning, its use, especially as the story progresses, is certainly counter to a biblical worldview. A staff that is displayed in the center of the town and used as a key focal point during the town’s big festival is said to give the town “luck”. During the festival people come to swing the staff for luck. The book mentions people from far and wide reporting on the great luck the staff has provided. While early on this feels like it is likely superstition, that changes as the book goes on. When the staff goes missing everything starts going wrong. The main character becomes convinced the missing staff has taken away the luck that she believes to be the source of the good in the area. This ends up actually being reinforced through conversations with adults. Even a good way through the book many readers will start to feel like we are headed towards a resolution saying that there is no such thing as luck, but instead it lands with something along the lines of, yes there is a lot of luck, but also people’s actions. If left unaddressed this would make for a takeaway for young readers that flies in the face of a sovereign God-focused worldview. There is also a similar reference to “Mother Nature” causing something. Even at the conclusion we hear that “the luck was here all along”. Other Potential Concerns: The next door neighbor is a murder-mystery author. Amelia concludes that she must have killed before, probably more than once. There is a mention from a story of a villain had hidden a body. There is a comment that 7th graders are the scariest kids because the 8th graders just don’t care anymore. There is a comment saying that (surprisingly) math turned out to be useful after all. One of the kids asks if the group thinks they will get in trouble. The response is that they will just pretend they didn’t know any better. There is a comment about our country having laws that disadvantaged black people. The female twin says, “I hope you’re not playing the male supremacy card” to which the male twin says, “Oops. The patriarchy gets everywhere. It’s like glitter”. When a set of baby nymphs are killed by natural causes Amelia’s sister begins a rant about human beings being rotten, “they drop their trash and put roads everywhere, and runoff pollutes your little cribs” despite there being no human involvement in this action. This same sister leaves constantly and it seems totally normal that no one knows where she is going. The parents seem to go out of their way to not ask. The concept of asking forgiveness and not permission is used by the neighbor children. There is a reference to the biblical flood as simply “There are tales of rain that flooded the earth”. At the festival one mom runs a tarot card booth. Seen as totally normal. There are a couple of instances where the main character is overly worried about what people think. She debates a hairstyle change worrying what people will think. Many authors are referenced that you would want to look into before allowing your child to check out. Something is referred to as “babyish”. One character “swears on a holy telegraph”. The term jerk is used several times. At one point Amelia’s sister says “duh” to one of her parents and is not reprimanded. There is a ton of emotional content around a child really wanting to keep a dog.