FROM AMAZON: It's the middle of summer in Mirabeau, Texas, but already Garnet Hubbard looks forward to fall -- to entering seventh grade and becoming a teenager at last. With Opal, her beautiful and popular fourteen-year-old sister, as her guide, Garnet is sure to have a great year. But everything changes when their mother, Melanie, packs them up and heads for Nashville, determined to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a country singer. Almost before they know it, Melanie drops the girls at her sister's house in Oklahoma, assuring them she'll be back just as soon as she's settled in Tennessee. But when a few days turn into a few weeks and beyond, with no Melanie in sight, the girls begin to realize what has happened.

While Opal soon becomes one of the most popular girls in school, her younger sister struggles. For Garnet, getting used to her new life means trying to figure out how to have pride in herself when it seems she has little to offer the world and the odds are stacked against her. With only each other to lean on, Melanie's "precious gems" must learn to live with the hand they've been dealt and to accept the changing face of their family.

Set in the early 1960s and beautifully told by D. Anne Love, Semiprecious is a powerful, poignant, and often funny coming-of-age novel that will stay with readers long after the turn of the final page.

This book is about a girl named Garnet and her sister, Opal. Their mother had a dream that she wanted to go to Nashville to become a singer. Garnet and Opal's mom drops them off at their aunt's house in the middle of a really small town. Their aunt doesn't even have a TV or a vehicle to get around in. They start going to the school that is in the small town. Opal has an easy time finding friends and becoming popular at the school but Garnet has trouble finding a way to fit in. Their father work on a ship and is injured on one of his jobs when the boat explodes. He is in the hospital for a longtime before he can leave and take the girls home.
This book helps to understand the problems of a family. Garnet an Opal are left behind by their mother and have to stay with their aunt. Not only that but their father is injured. To them it seems that their world is falling apart but the find hope in the small town the live in. Opal helps Garnet fit into school and they help their aunt in every way they can to make financial problems less horrible. Eventually everything works out and they get to go back home. Its problems of everyday teenagers shoved into one book. ( )

Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Garnet Hubbard is having a fairly good summer and is even excited about the prospect of entering seventh grade in the fall. Her life in Mirabeau, Texas, is filled with family and friends. All of that changes overnight.

Self-centered Melanie Hubbard, Garnet's mother, decides to seek her fortune as a country singer in Nashville. Because Garnet's father works on an oil tanker in the Gulf, Garnet and her sister are dropped off at Aunt Julia's when their mother runs off. The two girls begin life on their spinster aunt's lonely homestead outside the dusty Oklahoma town of Willow Flats.

Life in Willow Flats is dull and boring. School starts with pretty, popular Opal fitting right in, while Garnet's days are filled with teasing and taunting from the locals. News of an accident on the oil tanker and their father's serious injury creates worry for an already stressed Garnet. And when his disability checks never seem to arrive, Aunt Julia must resort to selling prized possessions and seeking help from welfare to keep the girls fed and clothed.

D. Anne Love does a superb job describing Garnet's frustration toward her absent mother, her attempts to fit in as part of Willow Flats, and the discovery of previously hidden talents and future dreams. Garnet's story will tug at the heartstrings of anyone who has suffered disappointments from those they love and found the courage to carry on despite them. ( )

I really enjoyed this story of a mom who leaves her two girls with her sister while she chases her dream of being a star in Nashville. At one point, the main character talks about feelings of love and hate for her mother bouncing around inside her at the same time, and it was such a perfect description. I wish I had written down the page number so I could include an exact quote! The emotions in this book are so real you can taste 'em. ( )

Review by: Funky Moose

This book is about finding family in unexpected places as Garnet finds out. Garnet and her sister Opal are dumped off with an aunt neither of them knew existed while their mother goes out to make an impossible dream come true. Their father gets hurt and they go into poverty. All Opal and Garnet want is their old life back. ( )