For a few weeks seventeen years ago, Bourne was national news when its water turned green. The girls have come of age watching their mother’s endless fight for justice. But just when it seems life might go on the same forever, the first moving truck anyone’s seen in years pulls up and unloads new residents and old secrets.
... winning and amiable ... The end of the story does seem a bit rushed, and one might wish that the townspeople weren’t so relentlessly good and that the villains weren’t so cartoonishly villainous, but then one might feel waspish and small-hearted. The full and simple pleasures of Frankel’s luscious prose lull the reader into rooting for the good people of Bourne and these plucky heroines. After all, doesn’t rooting for uncomplicated integrity feel good these days?
... heartbreaking yet heartwarming ... The story unfolds in alternating chapters, told by One, Two and Three, emphasizing the whip-smart girls' distinctive voices, sharp humor and mutual (yet never sappy) affection. Frankel adds a quirky but credible supporting cast of Bourne citizens. All the way to a fast-paced and heroic climax, readers will be rooting for them.
This would be a compelling plot told in a straightforward manner. Told through the voices of Mab, Monday and Mirabel it becomes richer, funnier and more poignant. Their adolescent ideas about their fellow residents (who include a wonderful elderly neighbor nicknamed Pooh), their hopes and dreams for their futures (Mirabel has no illusions about her own) and their determination to fight for justice make this one of the summer’s freshest novels. One Two Three tells a more complicated story than its title implies, all the while reminding us that big changes can be made through small steps.
