Be Prepared

“Sarah Hoffman always had the best birthday parties. I think I had the recipe down. Carvel ice cream cake - very important. Pizza Hut pizza. Stuffed crust a must. Gift bag full of high quality party favors. And most important, it absolutely had to be a sleepover.”

This passage is one of the first pieces of narration provided by the protagonist, Vera. She is attending a classmate’s birthday party and is describing the many components that make it a particularly great party. From her perspective, food and goodies provided by the host are essential to a party’s success and, crucially, the food must be of a certain type or brand. Vera has distilled the pieces of a great birthday down to a formula or recipe that she believes she should be able to easily replicate.

“Last year Sarah got Complicity, one of those fancy historical dolls. These dolls were big and beautiful, with entire catalogs full of cool stuff. They were also super expensive.”

Vera is describing the most popular toy of the moment among her peer group: historical dolls, which many readers would recognize as American Girl dolls. Vera notes how lovely they look, as well as how collectible they are, given the number of accessories they come with. Because of their loveliness and their additional accessories, Vera admits that they are expensive, illustrating that not all girls would have ready access to these “fancy” dolls, including Vera herself.

“Sarah’s dad worked for the government. Lots of their dads did. My parents were divorced. I hadn’t seen my dad in a few years, but whatever he was doing, he wasn’t sending us any money.”

Continuing to reflect on her social and class status, Vera observes that a key difference between herself and her peers is the presence of their fathers.