Story of a Girl (by Sara Zarr)

The cat’s been hearing great things about Sara Zarr’s recent novel The Lucy Variations. Because I usually like to read books chronologically, I ordered both The Lucy Variations and Story of a Girl. And man, if Story of a Girl is anything to go by, The Lucy Variations is going to be such a great book! Because I loved Story of a Girl a lot, a lot, a lot! This is a “quick” read (seems almost deceptively easy), but it’s one of the most powerful little novels I’ve read in a while, and one that I will remember for a long time.

It’s about an uncomfortable topic, for sure: a 13-year-old (Deanna) caught in a car of a senior, both with their pants down, by her father… only to be called the school slut forever after. If this were the only thing Story of a Girl were about, it would already be hard to take in, but Zarr throws in a main character who – despite not wanting to be defined by her past – never really becomes an entirely lovable character either (and there’s a thing or two to be said about writing unlikable characters, right?).  Deanna is 16 now, and ever since that event she’s wanted to escape her past and the stamp she was given. That didn’t quite work out for her, though. At school she’s still that girl and her dad hasn’t even so much as looked at her since that evening.

Oh man, this book is such a punch in the face. I really really loved it! Deanna made a mistake when she was still just a kid… 13 she was, and messed up, and yes, taken advantage of… and of course she wasn’t responsible , but she sure as hell thinks she was. And now, 3 years later, she’s in love with the (only) friend who stood by her since then, but who happens to have a girlfriend who happens to be Deanna’s only other friend… Things get ugly and complicated, and Deanna doesn’t know how to respond to it all, and she acts the ways she acts, and… but it’s so incredibly honest and real that it’s hard to see fault in the way Deanna acts now, to me. It’s not that I feel sorry for her, it’s that I get why she is the way she is.

Compassion, selfishness, redemption, loyalty, truth. It’s about all of these things and more. If I love The Lucy Variations half as much as I love this book, it’s going to be one hell of a book!

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (by Chris Crutcher)

Chris Crutcher is a giant in American YA literature, having won the Margaret A. Edwards Award already in 1997. By that time he already had 8 publications under his belt (not counting individual short stories), but much of the Award was probably because of the vital Staying Fat for Sarah Burnes (1993), in which everything that makes Crutcher into..err Crutcher is present: a focus on sport, the supporting role of the coach/teacher in a teen’s life, the responsibility of the parents as the teen grows into adulthood and of course, the friendship between teens. Also, he does not shy away from what one would call “issues”: abuse, abortion, intellectual freedom… it’s all there in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes.

Initially connected through their common outcast status, Eric (who was fat) and Sarah Byrnes (who has horrible burn scars in her face because of an accident that occurred when she was 3) have been friends since forever.  Once Eric – or ‘Moby’ as he came to be called – discovered swimming, he started to slim down. He stayed fat for an entire year because he feared he’d lose Sarah Byrnes’ friendship, if he suddenly wasn’t anymore, but Sarah Byrnes is a tough kid, who doesn’t care about that at all! That’s why it’s so painful for Eric to see how this tough person who didn’t let her ugly face (his and her own words) get the better of her, just stopped speaking one day and is now in a hospital, where she just sits and stares catatonically… Eric knows something else is going on and wants to find out before it’s too late.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes shows the personal growth of not one (main) character (Eric), but of several. Obviously there is Eric, but Crutcher includes an important storyline of Mark Brittain whose insistence on what is right(eous) and moral, and what isn’t, has landed him in big troubles. Now he has to take responsibility for his actions, actions which may have been instigated by the pressure he’s been under since he was born! It’s not hard to see why a topic like religion – always a hotbed of controversy USA! – is not often tackled in a YA novel, but to his own credit, Crutcher does it, and even has the decency to show us the different sides of the argument (although the “liberal” point of view is clearly the implied better option!). If you don’t agree with the implied message, you might take offense here (and judging from the many challenges this book has received, I’m guessing a lot of people have!), but the cat didn’t one bit. Chris Crutcher totally Judy Blumed his way into the cat’s favor!

And another poignant question, though, might be: given the fact that this was published in 1993, when today’s teens weren’t even born, does it pass the test of time? And, yes, it’s true, the kids today may not get all the references in the book. They might know about Rocky Balboa and The Far Side, but I don’t see them getting the winks to Raymond Burr, Leave it to Beaver or even Scarface. That being said, the book surpasses its temporal allusions and is definitely worth being called “a classic”. It’s the type of story that sticks. It’s about being more than what people would usually call “your shortcomings”, or “your handicap”. It’s about getting challenged and true friendship and loyalty and looking beyond the obvious, the apparent, the superficial… If that’s not contemporary, I don’t know what is!

Midwinterblood (by Marcus Sedgwick)

Two souls who long to be reunited through time is in short what Marcus Sedgwick’s Midwinterblood is about. It all starts on the mysterious Blessed Island in the year 2073 with journalist Eric Seven visiting the island and intent on writing a story about a place where apparently no children are born and people are rumored to live forever. On Blessed Island he meets a young woman, Merle, who he feels strangely drawn to although he doesn’t quite know why. At the close of the first tale, the reader ends up with more questions than answers, questions that are slowly answered by going back in time… seven times, until we get to the beginning of their destined love.

As per usual, Sedgwick’s prose is sparse and seemingly simple, which gives it its unsettling and haunting feel that most people call “gothic” (and after all, this is not just a book of love, but also one with quite a lot of violence, blood, death…). Somehow, Sedgwick always manages to give his books an almost poetic quality and Midwinterblood is no exception to this. I’m sure that Sedgwick will be accused of trying to outsmart himself with his attention to structure, genre, language and mood. But that’s not taking into consideration how engrossing this book (and many other of his books) really is: you just can’t stop reading and that’s the mark of a true artist right there.

Any Sedgwick book needs to be savored rather than devoured, though. His atmospheric prose is of the type that lingers. Blending the contemporary (e.g. the use of present tense alternated with the use of past tense for the narration of the 7 tales) with the traditional (these stories are what gothic horror tales would have been like at the heyday of “the gothic novel”!), he is so unlike many present-day “fantasy” writers, who churn out formulaic fantasy fodder. Sedgwick, on the other hand is – to use Aidan Chambers’ words – a true author and not a writer and he’s obviously not concerned with pleasing a certain type of audience, but rather in producing a work of art. Revolver, Blood Red, Snow White, Midwinterblood… all of these share this common urgency. And it works! It works for kids, it works for teens, it works for adults!

Okay for Now (by Gary D. Schmidt)

Gary D. Schmidt is soon becoming a cat favorite. His The Wednesday Wars was refreshing in its almost classic – some would even call this old-fashioned – uplifting and educational approach to children’s and teen literature, and Okay for Now follows that same trend and yet again it is a brilliant and touching book with a slew of memorable characters (Mrs Windermere!) .

Featuring Doug Swieteck, a character who first appeared in The Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now is equally as layered, equally as entertaining, and possibly even more moving in its emotional depth than TWW. Again, Schmidt skillfully weaves together such a bunch of different elements that it’s almost surprising how he manages to bring them all together in the most satisfying of ways. There is graphic art (by way of Audubon’s drawings of Birds of America), literature (through Doug’s reading of Jane Eyre), American history (Doug’s brother is a Vietnam veteran) and America’s main pastime (baseball!).

The Wednesday Wars was a Newbery Honor book in 2008, and it’s a damn shame the same didn’t happen for Okay for Now (maybe because it echoes that book so much – stylewise, voicewise, genrewise? Still… robbed, I tell you, robbed!). However, it was a 2011 National Book Award Finalist and just deserves to be read! Don’t miss it!

BTW, watch this YouTube video in which Schmidt talks about Okay for Now! Spot the typewriter! There’s a thing to be said about doing things old school!

Deadline (by Chris Crutcher)

Chris Crutcher has been around for so long now that has was already given the Edwards Award from the ALA in 1997, recognizing his “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature” and yet, his novels have long stayed under the cat’s radar. He would probably have stayed there, if I hadn’t been looking for books that in some way dealt with “sports”, to accommodate some really difficult readers… teenage jocks… As such I came across Joshua C. Cohen’s Leverage, Geoff Herbach’s Stupid Fast and Nothing Special, and also Chris Crutcher’s Deadline (2007).

Deadline has a premise that is at once commonplace and ingenious: what if you only had one year to live…and you knew it? That is what happens to Ben Wolf, the 18-year-old protagonist of Deadline, who during his annual routine physical, hears from his doctor that he’s suffering from a very aggressive blood disease. Instead of taking the pity road, Ben decides not to tell anyone. Not his parents, not his brother Cody, not his teachers, his coach, no one… Instead he is going to keep it a secret and live the last year of his life doing things he would otherwise never have done. He’s joining the football team (even though he’s actually really tiny!), goes after his dream girl Dallas Suzuki, and challenges his Civil studies teacher until he turns all shades of red because Ben wants to rename one of his town’s streets into Malcolm X Avenue.

And man, Crutcher has the teen voice down! Yes, there’s lots of angst going on (Ben’s dying, duh!), and soul-searching is an inevitability when you have a year to live. But in his search for truth, Ben manages to keep his humor – often brilliantly merged in his dream conversations with Hey-Soos… yes, that’s Jesus in Spanish… And if a cocktail of death and humor isn’t enough for you, what about the value of truth, book banning, civil (dis)obedience…?

The cat is really glad she found out about Chris Crutcher. Even though there are no “girl books” and “boy books”, books like Deadline are a lot easier to sell to reluctant male teen readers (who are definitely more abundant than reluctant female teen readers) than the next Sophie Kinsella or Nicholas Sparks bunk. Deadline comes highly recommended!