The Secret Sisters
Middle-grades master Avi charms in this delightful sequel to 2011’s The Secret School.
It’s 1925, and fourteen-year-old Ida Bidson can’t wait to start high school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Because it’s twenty miles from her home in Elkhead Mountain, Ida will board with Trudy Sedgewick, who works for the school district. When Ida arrives for her first day of school, she quickly realizes she’s a fish out of water. All the other girls have bobbed hair while hers is long and braided, and their skirts are much shorter. But Ida quickly makes friends with a group of girls, including the fast-talking, flapper-slang-slinging Lulu Gallagher. Together, the group forms a club called “The Secret Sisters,” and they vow to try something new every week.
But on one fateful day, as their music teacher is showing them how to do the Charleston, the principal barges in. Still stinging from Ida’s correcting him in front of other students on the first day of school, Principal Langly pins responsibility for the “inappropriate” club and its activities squarely on Ida. To make matters worse, he suggests that and all of the Sisters could be expelled after midterm exams in November. Ida and her friends resolve to crank up their studying to ensure they ace the exams so they can stay in school.
Quaint and sweet, this book will resonate with any reader who has ever come into conflict with an authority figure, either intentionally or not. Ida’s desire to make something of herself and not disappoint her family is infinitely relatable, and the secondary plot of why Trudy Sedgewick seems sad and aloof adds emotional heft. A glossary of flapper slang at the end of the book ensures that readers won’t get confused trying to translate Lulu’s entertaining speech. Highly recommended.
