Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Does perfection mean the erasure of all pain? Elodee wonders.Elodee's family needs a fresh start; everyone says so. The Lively family relocates to Eventown, a planned utopia where there's no internet, TV, or cars, and all the houses look the same. Fifth-grader Elodee can't wait to bake, while her identical twin sister, Naomi, looks forward to gymnastics. Part mystery, part fabulism, with a dash of dystopia, this story is as layered and delicious as one of Elodee's concoctions. In the preteen's narration, readers immediately see the town's appeal. Who could resist a special, personalized event in Eventown's Welcoming Center? After telling your stories—the scariest, most embarrassing, most heartbreaking, loneliest, angriest, and most joyful—your memories are locked away, freeing you for the happiness of Eventown. Reluctant to give away all her stories, Elodee begins to notice imperfections and question her surroundings—the weeds in their yard, how she and Naomi are drifting apart, what exactly her family wanted to forget. It's the last that drives Elodee to search for the truth about her past. In the process, she awakens Eventown's citizens to their feelings and connects her family through their shared stories. Although not as dark as The Giver, the narrative will evoke comparisons about the nature of perfection and the importance of memories. The Livelys present white, as does most of Eventown; one family integral to the plot is originally from India.At once enchanting, heart-rending, and bittersweet—just as Elodee would want it. (Fiction. 9-12)

School Library Journal Starred Review

Gr 5-7 What would you give up to always be content, to never experience grief or intense anger? Would you give up choice, variety, creativity, joy? These are exactly the questions addressed when Elodee and her twin sister Naomi move with their parents to Eventown in order to get a fresh start in their lives. The family has experienced something terriblean unknown event from which they have not been able to recover. All of that changes upon the family's arrival in their new town. It is quite literally a place where the sun always shines. There are no cars needed in Eventown since everyone bikes, the neighbors are friendly, and their new school is pleasant. Her parents are happy, as if the strain on them has been lifted, and her sister fits in like a glove. Elodee is only one who feels a distant strangeness, as if it is all a little too pleasant. Elodee begins to question her "perfect" new home. She notices that all the houses look exactly the same, the library is filled with blank books, and the ice cream shop only serves three flavors. Elodee must being to unravel her family's past in order to figure out what's missing and find true emotional closure for all of them. VERDICT An emotionally complex and wonderfully told story that will capture tween readers. Patricia Feriano, Montgomery County Public Schools, MD

ALA Booklist

A family recovering from tragedy moves to Eventown, an idyllic place where happiness has a dark side, in Haydu's latest. Elodee's family is excited to get a new start in Eventown, away from the sad memories surrounding an event they never talk about. Everything seems perfect in Eventown e place smells like roses and has the best ice-cream, and everyone is happy. But soon Elodee realizes she doesn't fit in like her parents and her twin sister, Naomi, do. Elodee wants to question why the books in Eventown have no words and why each resident is asked to tell their most difficult memories t then can't remember them. With a growing understanding that happiness and love cannot be separated from messiness and pain, Elodee fights to bring her family's most difficult memory to the surface. Readers will feel for the brave, unconventional Elodee, who both affirms her individuality but also feels the loneliness of it. Heavy themes of depression and repression mix with hints of renewal. A hope-tinged tale about the long aftermath of tragedy.

Horn Book

Elodee's family moves to Eventown, hoping for a fresh start away from a tragedy they don't discuss. At first, everyone in Eventown seems happy. But when Elodee figures out that residents have "forgotten" their bad memories, she must confront her family's own repressed tragedy. Haydu writes about loss, depression, and the messiness of healing with sympathy and hope.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Does perfection mean the erasure of all pain? Elodee wonders.Elodee's family needs a fresh start; everyone says so. The Lively family relocates to Eventown, a planned utopia where there's no internet, TV, or cars, and all the houses look the same. Fifth-grader Elodee can't wait to bake, while her identical twin sister, Naomi, looks forward to gymnastics. Part mystery, part fabulism, with a dash of dystopia, this story is as layered and delicious as one of Elodee's concoctions. In the preteen's narration, readers immediately see the town's appeal. Who could resist a special, personalized event in Eventown's Welcoming Center? After telling your stories—the scariest, most embarrassing, most heartbreaking, loneliest, angriest, and most joyful—your memories are locked away, freeing you for the happiness of Eventown. Reluctant to give away all her stories, Elodee begins to notice imperfections and question her surroundings—the weeds in their yard, how she and Naomi are drifting apart, what exactly her family wanted to forget. It's the last that drives Elodee to search for the truth about her past. In the process, she awakens Eventown's citizens to their feelings and connects her family through their shared stories. Although not as dark as The Giver, the narrative will evoke comparisons about the nature of perfection and the importance of memories. The Livelys present white, as does most of Eventown; one family integral to the plot is originally from India.At once enchanting, heart-rending, and bittersweet—just as Elodee would want it. (Fiction. 9-12)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In this thought-provoking novel, 11-year-old twin and experimental cook Elodee and her family leave behind an undefined sorrow for a new start in utopian Eventown, which eschews television, cars, and the internet; where everyone lives in identical houses; and where the air tastes like blueberries. Upon arrival, newcomers must visit the Welcoming Center to tell six critical stories-their most intense experiences of fear, embarrassment, anger, loneliness, joy, and heartbreak. An interruption in Elodee-s storytelling leaves her with her memories intact, whereas her twin Naomi can no longer remember her told memories from their past life and revels in the placid conformity of the town, with its library of blank books and single song: the -Eventown Anthem.- As the twins grow apart, Haydu (Rules for Stealing Stars) sketches the sinister underpinnings of this seemingly perfect place, especially its pressure to conform in all things-even baking without a recipe or planting a treasured rose veers from the town-s established (and always perfect) order. Ultimately, this memorable and brave heroine chooses sometimes painful stories, memories, and love in favor of a sanitized perfection. Ages 8-12. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Agency. (Feb.)