The nice thing about the Emmie & Friends series is that they are mostly predictable. You know what you are getting. There is a formula of events that will happen, you know the voices of the characters will be the same, and the illustrations won’t change much. With book nine, Entirely Emmie, Terri Libenson did not disappoint.
We return to the beginning of our beloved characters with Emmie and learn more about the jokester Joe. And while you know the pattern the book will follow (the character has adventures, learns things and comes to an understanding about not only themselves, but others, too), there is something else going on. In some ways this time Libenson has created something that is more universal sounding with the coming of age then they have previously created, but still you know where you will eventually end up and not lose anything we know and love about Emmie and her friends.
In a dual point of view story, (that has two styles to let us know which view point we are in, as well as their name as a chapter heading) we follow the two “third wheels” in their friendship group. Neither is popular on their own, but are a little by default because they have cool friends. During a school end of the year weekend camping trip, Emmie and Joe are paired up. You couldn’t find two more different people. Yet, that is what they need: to shake things up in a good way. The normal coming of age bumps happen, a few well-meaning but not so nice jokes are told and committed and when the marshmallows are toasted, maybe friendships will be changed in ways nobody imagined.
