She Loves You: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
Trudy Mixer is the founder of the Robert E. Quinn Junior High Beatles Fan Club in Rhode Island in 1966. It started out as the school’s largest club, but now kids have begun drifting away. In reaction to her best friend switching to the cheerleader club, she boasts that she is going to meet Paul McCartney. Trudy’s father gets her tickets for the Beatles’ upcoming performance in Boston, but circumstances intervene. He is sent to Japan on a business trip, and Trudy’s mother breaks her leg and can’t drive. Three of the remaining club members sneak off with Trudy on the bus to Boston to see the concert, in hopes that she will be able to make good on her promise that they will get to meet Paul.
Readers old enough to remember the era will enjoy reminiscing. Young readers will be introduced to life in the 1960s, with the book’s references to history and pop culture. A friend’s mother has abandoned her family to become a hippie in San Francisco. Others have brothers serving in Vietnam. A classmate has ambitions to diet and cut her hair short to look more like the model Twiggy.
Trudy is going through the self-centered stage that many teenagers endure. She thinks her father is not paying enough attention to her and is thrilled when she realizes that they both like the Beatles. Her experiences pursuing her dream to meet Paul evoke a change in attitude by the end of the novel. The main drawback, I thought, was that the ending was more fantasy than reality, judging by what I’ve read about the extreme security on the Beatles’ tours. It’s a fun, nostalgic wish-fulfillment story that will introduce young readers to the vibrant decade their grandparents experienced.
