Breakfast Served Anytime

Bibliography: Combs, S. (2014). Breakfast served anytime. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

ISBN: 978-0763667917

Genre: realistic fiction

Reading Level/Interest Age: 7th grade and up

Plot Summary: Gloria has earned a much coveted full scholarship at the University of Kentucky. The only caveat is that she has to attend a summer long class and live on campus. Leaving her best friend is catastrophic enough, but enrolling in a class called “Secrets of the Written Word”, that doesn’t even have a blurb in the catalog, doesn’t give Gloria much hope that the summer will be anything but miserable. She arrives to find a world of people she never could have imagined becoming friends with: rich kids, glamorous girls, geeky nerds, bible thumpers and just plain weirdos. Her first class assignment comes in the form of a note: a direction to follow, a place to meet, a mystery to solve. Gloria will have to work closely with her classmates to figure out just what their crazy professor is doing and where this crazy class is going.

Critical Evaluation: Within the 272 pages of Breakfast Served Anytime, blue butterflies are mentioned seventeen times. Butterflies hold countless symbolic meanings for people the world over, with many believing that butterflies represent transformation and spiritual growth. This symbolism is a powerful look into the protagonist’s growth and maturity throughout the story. Gloria comes into the story grieving for her recently deceased grandmother. She’s not ready to move on from the literal comfort of her grandmother’s or the figurative comfort of her advice. Gloria’s summer-long stay away from home gives her the opportunity to break out of her comfortable cocoon and, much like a butterfly, discover that change can lead to beautiful and unexpected adventures. Butterflies appear near Gloria just as opportunities for great change are about to present themselves to her. The fact that they are always blue is a subtle indicator to Gloria that she can trust in the lessons she’s learning and revel in the loyalty of the people she’s opening up to. She continually sees the butterflies for the beauty the reveal, yet recognizes that their spontaneous and brief appearances provided her a kind of magic that she never before experienced. This deliberate and successful use of symbolism is a perfect mirror of the development of young adults: change is a fundamental and beautiful part of becoming an adult.

Reader’s Annotation: Following clues with a bunch of strangers is not exactly what Gloria had in mind for her summer college class. But because she has to work so closely with them, she’s about to find out a lot more than she bargained for!

Author Information: Sarah Combs hails from Louisville, Kentucky, where she lives with her husband and sons. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky.¹

Combs leads writing workshops in the Young Women Writers Program and teaches fiction writing for youth and adults at The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, where she lives with her two sons, two bird dogs and her husband, whom she met at a geek camp similar to the one featured in her novel. She has worked as a high school Latin teacher, college literature instructor, and youth and teen librarian.²

Curriculum ties: literature analysis; natural resources

Booktalks: What kind of mystery class would you teach and what kind of clues would you leave? Is there anything in particular that holds symbolism in your culture?

Challenge issues: none

Challenge Issue Resources: n/a

Reasoning: Author Sarah Combs skillfully parallels the storyline of investigating strange class assignments with the emotional discovery that every teen has to go through. Her characters are realistic enough to identify with yet quirky enough for readers to maintain interest in. Breakfast Served Anytime also emphasizes the importance and fun of being culturally literate.

References

Animal Symbolism: Meaning of the Butterfly. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2015, from http://www.whats-your-sign.com/butterfly-animal-symbolism.html

The Color Blue. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2015, from http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/color-blue.html

¹Sarah Combs. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2015, from http://www.teenreads.com/authors/sarah-combs

²Harder, W., & Hale, W. (2014, April 23). Women Writers' Preview Party to Feature Sarah Combs, Debut Novel. Retrieved December 3, 2015, from http://uknow.uky.edu/content/women-writers-preview-party-feature-sarah-combs-debut-novel