Bigger than a Bread Box Paperback – September 11, 2012

My favorite childhood book I had to repurchase

This story made me laugh and cry. And I loved the inventive way the bread box was used for magic. Rebecca got into some unintentional mischief and it was interesting to see the approach she took to fix things. I'm thankful this book had been recommended to me. Worth it!

One night during a black out Rebecca's life changes forever. Her parents have been fighting ever since her dad crashed the taxi and began `job hunting' (from the comfort of the couch). But until that black out, everything seemed to be staying pretty much the same, just with louder fights. But after that night Rebecca's dad takes to sleeping on the couch. There are fewer angry words exchanged, and more silences. And then one day Rebecca returns home from school to find her mother and a pile of suitcases. They're going `home', mum says. Home means Atlanta and Gran's house. And they're not coming back until things feel right, whenever that may be. And dad's not coming.So Rebecca, her mum and two-year-old Lew get in the family car and drive to Atlanta. Rebecca cannot forgive her mum for just packing up and leaving, taking her and Lew away from Baltimore and dad, dancing to Bruce Springsteen in the living room and playing with Mary Kate at school.So Rebecca takes to her Gran's attic ... and up there she finds a breadbox. But not any ordinary breadbox, a magic breadbox. Close the lid and make a wish for something, reopen and that something magically appears. A little bit of magic might go a long way to curing Rebecca's hatred of her new school, new nickname and missing her dad. Maybe.`Bigger Than a Bread Box' was the 2011 US middle-grade novel from Laurel Snyder.I unabashedly loved this novel. I had no idea from that quirky title and even quirkier magic source that Snyder's book would have so much depth and be so full of heart.I'll have to borrow Snyder's own words - from the novel's `acknowledgements' page (I love reading those things!) - when she thanked her agents for persevering with her rather wacky story idea, which she pitched as a "middle-grade book about Bruce Springsteen songs and seagulls and divorce and a magical bread box."And that's exactly what this book comes down to, well, superficially at least.Rebecca is caught in the middle of her parent's breaking-point. She knows that they've been fighting a lot since her dad crashed his taxi and lost his job. She knows that her mother, a nurse, is exhausted by her day job and the feeling of ungratefulness she gets at home as wife and mother. But Rebecca doesn't understand why her parents can't talk instead of yell, or why her mother feels the need to flee to Gran's house for an unspecified period of time.Snyder borrows heavily from her own childhood, remembering her parent's divorce, to articulate this sad and awkward time through twelve-year-old Rebecca. She wants things to remain the same, but doesn't know how to do that. And when a magical bread box appears, she thinks that all her wishes will be answered...The bread box delivers an iPod, television, clothes, an old spoon, chocolates, bus tickets and seagulls (to remind her of Baltimore). What the bread box doesn't give is a way to fix her parent's marriage. Rebecca has to find that out on her own, through a series of misguided bread box wishes and a damning discovery of just where all this magic comes from.Along the way Rebecca will learn the truth behind Bruce Springsteen's `Heavy Heart' lyrics (nowhere near as cheery as the beat). Rebecca will also discover that her little brother, Lew, is a wonderful companion, her gran is rather wise, and that `followers' are not the same as `friends'. But Rebecca's biggest lesson of all is simply that some problems are bigger than they first appear, and the answers to them won't necessarily fit inside a bread box.A wonderful, charming and gently complex coming-of-age novel.

This book was amazing. It made me laugh,cry and all sorts of emotions. I don't even have words to explain this it was just perfect. Thank you so much to Laurel Synder for creating this masterpiece. I recommend this book for 10 year olds through all adults. It was the best book ever so come on, read it already!

I like that I got this book quick and this book is a summer homework that she have to do for a grade when go back to school after the summer brake.

I mean come on a bread boxonce you start you can't put it down that is just how awesome it isA girl and her adventures with a bread boxweaving in and out of challenges in school and with her parentsBut I won't spoil it for you guys .you have to read it to find out what happens!

This book was super good. I kind if wished that I had that bread box :). Though, I wanted Rebecca to tell her grandma about the bread box.

I have to say this is one of the best books I've ever read!And I'm so excited that I finished because in my class we get to Skype Laural Snyder! :)I LOVE THE BOOK! Make a second one!