When did you become a grown-up?
April 15th, 2009 Katharine - Sequoya
Was it when you got your first car? your first kiss? told your first lie to an adult? This idea is fully explored in the award-winning novel What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell. If you don’t periodically read young adult literature, I highly suggest it, there is some amazing storytelling going on in that genre and this book is no exception.
Evie’s story begins in Queens, NY right after World War II and her life hasn’t been easy. Her biological father left when she was a baby, her bombshell beauty mother Bev keeps attracting men other than her new husband Joe and Grandma Glad (Joe’s overbearing mother) lives with them keeping tight reins on all their lives. At dinner one evening, seemingly without warning, Joe announces they should take a trip to Florida. Evie, Bev and Joe are soon enjoying the tropical weather and ammenities of a new location, a sunny West Palm Beach hotel. Here Evie meets a mysterious stranger named Peter Coleridge, who happens to have served with Joe overseas. This is where the tangled web starts to weave. Peter becomes Evie’s first love, Joe befriends a nice rich couple and plans to go into business with them, Bev takes up golf and is gone for hours. What does this all have to do with Evie? After a violent hurricane during which her parents and Peter go missing on a boat, Evie’s world becomes more complicated than she ever could imagine.
The pacing of this novel is excellent, you know from page one that something bad is going to happen, but you just don’t know what. The description of the time period is rich with detail, you feel the stifling Florida heat as Evie explores her new surroundings. This YA novel would be suitable for mature junior high students and older (because of a few suggestive sex scenes) making it a good suggestion for a teenage daughter (or in my case mature junior high school niece). Blundell was awarded the 2008 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for this work and it was well deserved.
Entry Filed under: Young Adult
4 Comments Add your own
1. Citizen Reader | April 16th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Katharine,
you know I read anything you suggest, so count me in. But even if this wasn’t recommended by you, I’d have to look at it–I love the title and the cover.
Speaking of YA lit, when are we going to get a new John Green? And yes, I know we just got a new John Green. I don’t care. I want another one!
2. katharine | April 18th, 2009 at 7:31 am
you’ll just have to follow john green on twitter
http://twitter.com/realjohngreen
check out his tweets!
3. Katie H. | April 20th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Have you tried ‘Let It Snow,’ the collection Green just co-authored with Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson? The three interwoven stories are Christmas-y, but they all have that Green-ish appeal (it was my first time reading Myracle or Johnson and now I’ve got them on my must-reads list). Might help tide you over until the next full-length Green title comes out.
4. Citizen Reader | April 21st, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I did, Katie, because I’m pathetic and I snap up anything and everything John Green as soon as possible. But thank you for the tip!
Do you or Katharine have anyone else like him you could suggest? I’ve tried Maureen Johnson and she’s not really for me…
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