Changes. Changes.

3/26/2020

The List of Things That Will Not Change
by Rebecca Stead

a story about me, but a different me, a person who doesn’t exist anymore

Bea experienced a major life disruption four years ago when her parents divorced. Now she divides her time equally between the apartments of her supportive mother and understanding father. To ease her anxiety, they presented her with a green notebook to record "The List of Things That Will Not Change." They started the list with:

Mom loves you more than anything, always.
Dad loves you more than anything, always.

They encourage Bea to look for things that remain constant, things that she can depend on. School, relationships with peers, and the distinctive parenting styles of her mother and father are predictable.
The irony is that her life is about to change in several surprising ways.

Without revealing an important plot point, it is safe to say that the most significant change that occurs is the change in Bea herself.

At age twelve, Bea’s life is about to experience another seismic shift. Dad has announced that he and his partner Jesse are getting married. The secure little nuclear threesome of Dad, Jesse, and Bea will expand to include Sonia, Jesse’s daughter who lives with her mother in California. Bea is thrilled at the prospect of having a sister and fantasizes about life with a sibling. When Sonia comes for a visit, things are not as Bea envisioned. Not at all.

Bea has her share of challenges. She suffers from eczema which requires application of a medicated lotion. She frequently opts for quick but temporary relief by running her hands under scalding hot tap water, leaving her skin sore and dry. She often exhibits a lack of impulse control, rashly responding when angry. On more than one occasion her impetuous outbursts have alienated her from those close to her. Mom has arranged for her to regularly meet with a therapist to help Bea learn to deal with her anger and frustration.

Stead lovingly paints her central character as flawed. Bea makes mistakes, some trivial, others resulting in serious consequences. Her anger, recklessness, and misreading of a situation bring pain to herself and to others in her immediate circle. She’s a girl who loves to dance, looks forward to the future, and eventually takes the massive step to acknowledge her past mistakes and courageously work to make things right. Readers will fall in love with Bea, not by overlooking her faults, but by accepting this imperfect girl. Readers will discover, like her family and friends, that they love her. All of her. Her strengths and her weakness. A story of love that persists in the face of change.

While The List of Things that Will Not Change narrative is a whole cloth, each chapter stands alone, a polished gem in a sparkling diadem of a novel. I read, stopping to savor each individual chapter. Each is a well-crafted tiny literary jewel that offers a glimpse into a precise moment in Bea's life. Chapters fit together into a smooth and polished middle-grade story. This is Stead at her best.

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