TeenLit Book Reviews

Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg is a novel about a young girl who lost her mother and is trying to help and understand her father’s feelings and grief. Katie, the main character, has a father who is in the military and her family has to move quite often. Her mother died, and her father misses her very much and is having a lot of trouble raising his two daughters. He is definitely not a mother and does not know how to handle the things that happen to girls. Katie and her older sister have been trying to deal with his anger and frustration toward the loss of their mother for a long time and can’t take it any more. They decide to run away. Elizabeth Berg did a great job writing this book; it was exciting, interesting, and fun to read. In the end it didn’t seem like she really finished the book; it seemed like everything went back to how it was before. After an interesting or exciting part, it went dull then exciting then dull. It needs to stay interesting throughout the book. I recommend this book for girls who want to read about how it is to live without a mother, or have the experience of living without a mother.