Puppy Love Abounds in Booky's Crush

As someone who grew up with the exquisite Kevin Sullivan Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea miniseries, I was excited to happen upon a series of Canadian period movies featuring a spunky young main character and starring Megan Follows, who made such an impeccable Anne. In the Booky movies, based on the novels by Bernice Thurman Hunter, Follows plays Francie, the mother of intelligent, tomboyish Booky Thomson (Rachel Marcus), a middle schooler in Depression-era Toronto. She has two close friends in tall, blond Laura (Emilia McCarthy) and short, brown-haired Rosie (Ariel Waller), but in Booky’s Crush, she is fixated on a new classmate, cute but mildly troublesome Georgie (Connor Price). Her teacher selects her to tutor Georgie in spelling, but who will tutor her in the complex art of getting him to ask her to the upcoming school dance?

Booky isn’t the only one with a crush in this family-friendly made-for-TV movie. Shy Rosie carries a torch for Booky’s older brother Arthur (Dylan Everett), a quiet, artistic lad concerned by his father’s implication that he may need to give up his passion to take on more practical work. The oldest Thomson, sweet librarian Willa (Sarah White), has a fiscally unfeasible passion as well; she wants to go to medical school, as does the young man she fancies, a frequent visitor to the library. To quote the precocious 8-year-old author of How to Talk to Girls, “A crush is like a love disease,” and half the people in this movie seem to be infected. It’s all very innocent; the movie remains firmly within G-rated territory at all times. It’s also very true to life, and anyone who’s ever endured a powerful crush will likely find it easy to sympathize with Booky and giggle a bit over the heightened drama such emotions bring, especially in one so young.

Thomas Thomson (Stuart Hughes) is the character through whom we see the pinch of the Depression most acutely. He has a job – at a chocolate factory – but he fears he could lose it any day, and this makes him testy around others. His concerns about the unstable job market produce tension with the rest of his family, especially Arthur. Hughes and Follows, who are romantically involved in real life, make a realistic couple, fraught with material worries but still able to indulge in simple joys. While Thomas comes across as rather distant and cantankerous throughout much of the movie, Francie has a consistent warmth and sparkle, even when she is laying down the law.

Other indications of the era include the Thomsons’ ancient hand-me-downs, the discussion of how nice it would be if girls could wear pants and Francie’s recollection of hearing the news that the Titanic had sunk. In many ways, the movie reminds me of Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, the recent movie based on the Depression-era doll and her accompanying books. Both movies balance serious issues with light-hearted childhood fun set against a bleak but still vibrant historical backdrop.

Several engaging threads run through this movie, and since almost equal time is devoted to the adult and child characters, it really is an ideal film for the family to watch together, with different storylines resonating more with different people. Everyone in the cast does a great job, with Marcus nailing the dizzy confusion of realizing you’ve fallen for someone and Everett conveying the anguish of having one’s dreams squashed. This wasn’t the first movie in the series, but I don’t get the sense that order is particularly important. I plan to watch the rest of the movies, which currently are available through Netflix Instant Streaming. Old-fashioned family entertainment of this kind that is both well-crafted and educational isn’t that easy to come by, so I look forward to getting to know Booky and the rest of the Thomsons better as I explore the other installments.