Henry Lloyd and Eva Smith are as different as girls can be, but that hasn’t stopped them from becoming best friends. Henry is an aggressive tennis star focused on winning, while Eva is a graceful ballet dancer who likes things to be neat, linear, and perfect. As they go their separate ways for the first time to attend summer camp, Eva to the New York School of Dance and Henry to Florida and the Chadwick Tennis Academy, they are both eager for a chance to make a good impression at a professional level. But when disaster strikes Eva leaving her unable to continue to dance, Henry knows she has to be there for Eva, no matter what she has to give up to do so.
I really enjoyed Jersey Tomatoes are the Best. The story is told in chapters alternating from Henry’s point of view to Eva’s, with a lot a flashbacks. I was thrown off by the sudden switches to the past at first, but after awhile I was able to grow accustomed to them and found the flashbacks to be an important part of the story, offering answers to mysteries and deeper glimpses into the girls’ character. Henry and Eva’s characters were very well developed, their voices and the dialogue realistic. The way their personalities complemented each other was heartwarming, and reading about their quirks often left me laughing.
I was gratified to see the relationships the families shared were complicated, and a more realistic portrayal of today’s typical parent-teen relationships than the trend of YA book parents being completely absent or outrageously awful. Henry’s relationship with David was also complicated. It started out great, and I thought David was great; a fantastic tennis player and a really funny, nice guy. But I was disappointed in him later in the book, I felt like he betrayed Henry, and he didn’t quite manage to fully redeem himself. The way the author handles Eva’s low self esteem and the problems it caused really impressed me. Knowing Eva’s thoughts helped me understand what she was going through, and it wasn’t done in a way that irritated me.
Wendy, the therapist, did an excellent job explaining Eva’s disorder and that also really helped me understand. I especially liked how the question was left open of whether the pressure to be perfect for ballet was to blame for Eva’s issue, if her past experiences, personality type, and insecurity were the deciding forces, or it was a mix of the two. Jersey Tomatoes are the Best was a great read, both fun and entertaining, sad and thought provoking, and I absolutely recommend it to everyone.
- Author’s Website: http://www.mariapadian.com/home.html
- Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
- Date of Publication: March 8, 2011
