Palisades Park by Alan Brennert review

Bestseller Alan Brennert's spellbinding story about a family of dreamers and their lives within the legendary Palisades Amusement Park Growing up in the 1930s, there is no more magical place than Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey—especially for seven-year-old Antoinette, who horrifies her mother by insisting on the unladylike nickname Toni, and her brother, Jack. Toni helps her parents, Eddie and Adele Stopka, at the stand where they sell homemade French fries amid the roar of the Cyclone roller coaster. There is also the lure of the world’s biggest salt-water pool, complete with divers whose astonishing stunts inspire Toni, despite her mother's insistence that girls can't be high divers. But a family of dreamers doesn't always share the same dreams, and then the world intrudes: There's the Great Depression, and Pearl Harbor, which hits home in ways that will split the family apart; and perils like fire and race riots in the park. Both Eddie and Jack face the dangers of war, while Adele has ambitions of her own—and Toni is determined to take on a very different kind of danger in impossible feats as a high diver. Yet they are all drawn back to each other—and to Palisades Park—until the park closes forever in 1971. Evocative and moving, with the trademark brilliance at transforming historical events into irresistible fiction that made Alan Brennert’s Moloka'i and Honolulu into reading group favorites, Palisades Park takes us back to a time when life seemed simpler—except, of course, it wasn't.

My Review:
This is a great book about childhood memories. I loved the way the author weaved the real history of the park into a well written novel. The characters where great to read about, and I was so proud of Antoinette for following her heart and dreams. I would say that she is the main character plot, however the other characters around her were just as interesting. They had great depth and I wanted to know more about them. I also really enjoyed reading about the park workers and how much of an impact they had on fellow employees. My favorite part was when the author talked about the Palisades Park song. This book had it all, family, drama, history and pop culture. I am giving this book a 5/5. I was given a copy to review from Night Owl Reviews, however all opinions are my own.