A wonderful new addition to the Emmie & Friends series! This time we follow Brianna, see her prepare for a Bat Mitzvah, find confidence, and more!

I was so delighted when I saw this book over at one of my libraries! I thought it was in Dutch, but no, it was the English edition! I just love this series so much and I am happy I could read some more of it! This time following Brianna~

In this book Brianna agrees (reluctantly) to do a Bat Mitzvah as her mother wants to keep up the tradition. On the one hand I was pissed at the mom for forcing this (that is how it felt to me) but on the other hand I also wish that Brianna had just made up her mind and say a clear no (she is wavering because this is her mom). In the end though, after all we go through in this book, the preparation, the thoughts that Brianna put into it, the things she learned, I am kind of glad that she gave it a shot. Because she really grew over the course of the book (well after some obstacles and some arguments including a big one with her best friend Emmie) and really learned some amazing things along the way.

I loved how the book was split up in two timelines. On the one hand we have the NOW which means that we are at the day of the Bat Mitzvah and see how Brianna is doing there along with slowly going to the speech and everything else. Then we have the THEN which starts at the moment Brianna’s mom asks about the BM and then we get to see time get nearer and nearer to the NOW and see all the preparations, the obstacles along the way, the lessons, the anxiety, and more. I really loved it and I loved how it just all clicked together and I also loved how the author distinguished between them. The NOW is all comics whereas the THEN is part text with a lot of illustrations.

The bat mitzvah was a lot of fun to read about and also interesting to see all the work/preparation go into it. Learning a new language (or well picking it up again), thinking of a speech, talking to the rabbi, and more.

I love how big this universe is and how much it can still expand! I love seeing characters from previous stories doing well/talking to the MC we have in this book. It just makes me happy to see Emmie again for instance, read that she is doing OK.

All in all, I cannot wait for the next book, hopefully my library will magically add that one! crosses fingers And I would recommend this book to everyone!