Chicks with Sticks (Knitwise)

THis was absolutely one of the best books I have ever read. I knit so I do think it helps to understand the book abit better. I do think the first one is more interesting though. But other than that, aweseome book!

I loved it! Elizabeth Lenhard is obviously a fellow knitter and spins a wonderful story along with knitting joys and frustrations and characters that you really care about.

Scottie is a 16-year-old girl who lives in present-day Chicago. Her life is changing but Scottie just wants everything to be back to the way it was. Her best friend suddenly attracts boys, new pouplar friends, and invations to parties Scottie would never imagine beung invited to. Her favorite aunt dies suddenly and her mom becomes "an It girl of Chicago's art world". Scottie even has trouble sleeping through the night now. Shure sleeping through a 10 o'clock and 4 o'clock train might seem impossible but Scottie did it for thirteen years. Well, you can't rewind time and Scottie becomes misserable. Then late one night when Scottie is rummaging through her purse(the one she hasn't touched since the funeral) and finds a tangled mass of yellow yarn wrapped around two knitting kneedles. She remembers her great-aunt teaching her how to knit at the funeral. Scottie struggles at first with the kneedles the begins to knit smoothly. She does one row, then another, and another. The steady click of medal kneedles calmed her down and she instsantly fell in love with knitting. Then she discovers KnitWit, a small knitting shop down town. The owner befriends her and helps Scottie learn many things, form purling to how to deal with her mother. At knitWit Scottie is reunited with Amanda and they become best friends again. She also meets Bella and Tay, two girls who also go to her school but she would never socialy interact with each other. The foursome become close friends. They even knit togather at the lunch table sometines. But as always problebs beegin to occur. Tay and Amanda have crushes on two differnt boys and they are not sure how htey will take the "knitting thing". Bella was home schooled by her parents untill high school, so she strictly obeys their laws, untill one day she realizes what she is missing by being so overly obedient. Scottie's mom dosen't see her, rather she looks through her and Scottie is sick of it. Togather the girls try to resolve each others personal problems but like always, things don't go as planned, or stiched.

I got this book yesterday and could not put it down until I was done. It is so true to knitting and friendship issues! I loved it!

I'll admit that I bought this mostly because Elizabeth is a friend, and that I'm not usually a reader of YA. But I swear to God, I read it in one sitting last night and loved it. I expected it to be a little too cute for my tastes, but the characters are very real, the identity issues totally believable, and the knitting far more compelling than I ever thought it could be. A good blend of different kinds of girls are represented, and the writing is really strong. This is something I'd give to any tweens in my life... a fabulous read!