I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this, I enjoyed this book but more importantly my teenage daughter loved it and can't wait to read more.

I received this ebook in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book’s premise was good and I enjoyed it for the most part. There were a lot of characters that I found it difficult to place some of them. I think part of that is the fact that they were introduced in a chapter but not mentioned again for several chapters.

The timeline was difficult to follow in my opinion. I feel like my students would struggle following this book. The dual perspectives were a good idea but was hard to follow.

First sentence: The ever-zesty Ms. Earlene can charm fleas off a dog, about that I am not kidding. My grandmother is magnetic, only not scientific. Most folks from town have had firsthand experiences with Ms. Earlene’s gift of influence, and while I am by far her number one fan, I was determined not to listen to her advice to go public with the Dewbabies.

Premise/plot: Darcy and her grandma, Ms. Earlene, narrate this lovely middle grade novel. This one has some fantasy elements in it, namely the Dewbabies. When someone does a kind deed, a dewbaby is born in the rain forest. Dewbabies are tiny people. (Think of how fairies are born: a baby's first laugh.) When their community is threatened due to new construction in the rain forest, the dewbabies hitch a ride in a human suitcase and find themselves at Darcy's house. Darcy and her grandma are determined to protect the dewbabies.

The plot is a bit farfetched and fanciful at times, but overall this one has a sweet feel to it.

My thoughts: I liked this one. I didn't really, really, really like it. I certainly didn't love it passionately. But I found it an interesting enough read. I especially liked that the book focuses on Darcy AND her grandma. It isn't just that this one celebrates this relationship, but the book actually gives her a voice and a good bit of the story focus. I also liked the casualness of the family's belief in God and the Christian faith. It was never a plot point--just a background detail that readers will either pick up on or miss completely. I find it a rare detail so when I do notice it, I like to point it out.

What didn't quite work for me (now that I've pointed out two positives) was the timing. I never really got a great grasp on the flow of time. That plus I struggled to suspend my disbelief--not about the dewbabies, which oddly enough I was okay with--but with the idea that a school would okay a class field trip to the RAIN FOREST, the parents would be okay with sending their children on a trip this far away, and if I read the novel correctly, the field trip was supposed to be during Christmas vacation?! Perhaps I misread the timing of it, but still. What community could they live in where there would be enough fundraising and such to pay for a trip to the rain forest?

Darcy and Jenius are 12-yr old best friends in the small town of Old Bern, West Virginia. Darcy and her grandmother alternate narrating this mystery-adventure where Darcy's aunt Estelle is the bad guy criminal while also working at Darcy's school, Martin Hampton Middle School.
There's some glorification of junk food, normalization of the Cheesecake Factory, and I think a lot of the humor and wordplay goes right over the heads of the intended reading audience (I have two 12-yr olds and neither of them knew the meaning of gnarly, beatnik, flush, a four-iron, Jackie O sunglasses, Clark Griswold, or toe-curlin' for example). I found all the nicknames, aliases, and plays on names confusing and a bit tedious, though my kids say they didn't really mind or even notice. Finally the grandmother's religious tangents, and the origin myth of the mystical miniature people living in closets, both ventured beyond the realm of my comprehension, or perhaps patience.

First of all, many thanks to NetGalley for an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC)

I got bored,
I laughed,
I cried.
My heart is very full.
An extremely good read for both the young and old.
Let me just end this with a few lines that, in my opinion, are gold.

"Children, even grown-up children, never stop wanting our attention, so I say we'd better give it to them while they're available to us."

"Did you know, Darcy, God saves our tears in a bottle? Every tear ever shed. I do not recommend flinching from adversity. It's God's way of infusing iron into our soul. How else could he impart iron into our mortal natures but by letting us suffer?"

"It's like I always say, faith isn't learned when we're marinatin' in comfortable situations. There is no reason we shouldn't ask for big things or amounts. We will get what we ask for, large or small. Might as well as for big."

"What would happen if we treated people who appear unlovable as if they were simply under construction, under development, if you will?"

"And to the fallen, we must be kind."