A brilliant little book that stands on its own, even if you haven’t read its predecessors. Guess her strategically placed hair wasn’t cutting it anymore. “They called it Julia’s Town.” I’m not crying, YOU’RE CRYING! I was highly amused, by the way, to see that the mermaid has somehow over the course of the books acquired a t-shirt. But now she has a veritable city of creatures and they plunge forward, rebuilding. The house? When she finds it, it’s just rubble. I’m just gonna give away the ending here, because I think Hatke just sticks the landing on the trilogy so well. Julia picks them up as well and new ones, promising each a place to live (“we’ll make room”) until it begins to dawn on her that she’s being unrealistic. Then, tragedy strikes! The house tumbles away, throwing inhabitants hither and thither. In search of a new place to park it, Julia spots the ideal spot in the distance. In this book Julia’s house has served its purpose, providing space for more and more creatures that need a home. I love the “Julia” series in general, so now to find that #3 has come out AND that it’s in hot contention with #1 as the best of the trilogy (nothing against #2 but it suffers from classic second-in-a-trilogy syndrome), that’s a treat. Generally I at least make an effort to keep my own little odd desires out of the mix, but for this book? Yeah, no go. And I’m more than perfectly aware of my own weird likes and dislikes. These 31 days, 31 lists are created by a committee of one: me. Committees are made of people and people are guided by their own internal weirdnesses. No “best of” list at the end of the year is free from personal prejudice and preferences.

I Like Being Alone by Betty Ren Wright