41. The Girl Who Became a Beatle by Greg Taylor

The Girl Who Became a Beatle by Greg Taylor (Canada) - (US)

Pages: 281
Ages: 12+
Finished: Feb. 18, 2011
First Published: Feb. 15, 2011
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Genre: Young Adult, Magical Realism
Rating: 4/5




First sentence:

A lot of winter days in Twin Oaks are like some of the black-and-white movies I've seen.

Acquired: Received a review copy from Macmillan Kids.

Reason for Reading: Simply enough, the Beatles connection appealed to me.

This is a modern day fairy tale. Regina Bloomsbury, ultra-major Beatles fan & collector has her own band, aptly named The Caverns. The Caverns are about to fall apart at the seams and Regina wishes she were as famous as The Beatles one night in bed. The next morning she awakes to find herself the lead singer of The Caverns, an explosive new band on the scene, up for 8 Grammy nominations. Regina is famous and has the life that comes with it but, you see, as her Fairy Godmother explains in an email no one could ever be as famous as The Beatles so she erased them from history and gave all their songs to Regina. So she is famous, but her first album, Meet The Caverns, is full of Beatles songs attributed to her. While Regina gets comfortable with the perks of being famous, including a famous TV star boyfriend, she also discovers the downside of how stardom can change people. None of her band is friendly with her, in fact there is open hostility with one member. Regina discovers that not only does she have a reputation as a diva she has also badly hurt the feelings of the one band member who meant the most to her back in her former life. But as Regina starts to find out a girl could get used to a life of fame and fortune and she has a week to decide if she will stay in her new life or go back to the old.

A good story. All The Beatles trivia and history is fun and I found myself humming songs as they were mentioned while I was reading. While being a fantasy the book isn't overloaded with typical fantasy elements such as magic but follows more along the lines of magical realism. One does have to suspend reality to enter and except Regina's world. The Girl Who Became a Beatle is also a coming-of-age story as Regina learns some life lessons, makes decisions based on decency rather than personal gratification and ultimately realizes that her life is not only about her, that others are affected by her actions as well. On the surface a fun, often humorous fairytale that we all would like to have that one wish granted but the book has a lot of deeper layers that deal with growing up and maturity. A fine read.