Ashley Herring’s “Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World” Blake is a gentle book about coming of age. The narrative commences when a tornado demolishes the home of twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen, forcing her family to relocate. Following the incident, Ivy experiences feelings of being unnoticed and invisible, and her notebook containing covert drawings of girls holding hands disappears.
Unbelievably, Ivy’s drawings start to resurface in her locker along with notes from an unknown person urging her to reveal who she is. Ivy believes—and hopes—that this someone is a classmate, a different female on whom she has started to grow romantic feelings. The narrative of the novel is about Ivy’s quest for the bravery and fortitude to express her own emotions.