Tag Archives: marcie gray

Youth fiction worthwhile despite predictability

Three Little Words

By Sarah N. Harvey

Orca Book Publishers

218 pages, $12.95

Reviewed by Marcie Gray

Sarah N. Harvey tries to say a lot in Three little words. Her novel for young adults ranges over the various facets of family life as she tells the story of 16-year-old Sid. He was a toddler when his mother abandoned him and his foster parents took him in, raising him on one of the Northern Gulf Islands. He leads what seems to be a contented life – the only hint that he is unsettled is the comic strip he draws of a boy who is a lonely outcast. Then a friend of his birth mother arrives on the scene, and Sid learns he has a step-brother and a grandmother in Victoria. Sid, pale and wiry and sporting lots of red curls, discovers his brother has curly hair too – but it’s black, along with his skin. From here, Harvey leads us on a journey into what makes a family, as she explores foster families, birth parents, and siblings who are different races.

These are intriguing issues for the intended audience – teenagers who are figuring out their own place in the world. But this kind of audience also demands action right from the start, and Harvey doesn’t deliver. Instead she tries to hook readers by presenting a mystery: an eight-year-old girl arrives at Sid’s house seeking foster care. Her past is unclear, but whatever has happened, she is now afraid of males and speaks only to say please and thank you. Harvey moves from this mystery to a quick but thorough introduction of the main characters, and along the way, even manages to throw in some satirical sexual humour that will appeal to this audience. But it may not be enough to keep them reading past the first couple of chapters.

If these teen readers stick with the story, they’ll be rewarded. Harvey, an author from Victoria, has written nine books for children and young adults, and her prose is polished, her narrative engaging. She introduces more mystery and a manhunt, along with the ever-present question: what does the title of the book mean? What are the three little words? There are lots of chances to guess along the way, and Harvey has fun with the chapter titles, giving each chapter three words, from “Have a Heart” to “Make My Day.”  It’s entertaining just trying to interpret how she names each chapter.

The plot moves smoothly, if a bit predictably. In a young adult novel, the pacing has to stay on track, and on occasion that’s accomplished rather conveniently, when one character or another seems to read Sid’s mind. But these are minor matters. Three little words takes major themes such as family and tolerance and respect, and wraps them in a tasty novel.  I hope teen readers will dig in.

Marcie Gray used to report and produce for CBC Radio. Today she’s writing her own youth fiction.

Jack’s a solid character at 12

Record Breaker
By Robin Stevenson
Orca Book Publishers, 142 pages, $9.95

Reviewed by Marcie Gray

The moment I picked up this book of youth fiction, I thought, “How brilliant! A story about a boy who wants to break world records!” Brilliant, because I’ve found that if you have an emerging, reluctant reader of the male variety–and you want him to read something other than comic books, hand him a copy of Guinness World Records. He’ll snatch it up and quickly memorize who has the longest fingernails, who has swallowed the most knives, who has broken the most bones. So it makes exquisite sense that this book–about 12-year-old Jack and his quest to be famous–would appeal to its young audience.

But Victoria author Robin Stevenson’s novel is not just an accounting of weird and wonderful feats. She uses world records as a device to draw in readers and tell a deeper tale about love and loss and thinking beyond yourself. Stevenson grew up in southern Ontario; she sets her story there, during the Cold War world of the Cuban Missile Crisis and U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Amidst this global chaos, Jack faces his own family crisis. His baby sister dies. Now his mother can’t get out of bed, and his father offers little comfort. Breaking a record takes on more significance as Jack hopes to make his mother laugh and make his father proud. Plot spoiler: Jack eventually realizes to help his family, he’ll have to do more than devour 17 sausages in 90 seconds.

Stevenson sets a tough task for her protagonist, but she helps us believe he’s up for the job by giving him a solid, thoughtful personality and friends who are likeable for their quirks. The story is told in first person, which can be tricky for a writer, and occasionally Stevenson does slip into a voice that is too old for a 12-year-old. I also wonder whether my own 10-year-old son would understand references to “the bomb” and “nuclear holocaust.” Ask him about 9/11 or why airline security is so tight, and he’s quick with answers, but potential nuclear war is too remote.

A little more explanation on the history side might help keep young readers interested. While this book has tension, it still feels like a gentle read, as we follow Jack in his daily life in a small town. I enjoyed the pacing but I’m not sure the sausage swallowing and other exploits would be enough to keep my boy’s nose in this book instead of Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. It’s a safer bet that Record Breaker would really score in a classroom, with a teacher guiding along a group of young readers.

Marcie Gray has a background in CBC radio journalism and is at work on her own novel.

 

Author creates credible teen character

The New Normal
By Ashley Little
Orca Book Publishers,  222 pages, $12.95
 
Reviewed by Marcie Gray

Alberta writer Ashley Little really knows how to make an entrance.

Her first novel for young adults, The New Normal, jumps right into the crisis at hand: the main character, Tamar, is shedding. She’s 16 and is losing her hair–and not just the hair on her head. It’s falling out everywhere, from her private parts to her eyelashes. I say “private parts,” but she uses more graphic language. The first page is a bit of a shock for me, a mother who is thinking about whether this book is something I’d like my daughter to read when she hits her teens. I’m used to the softer, safer language of leading female characters in books like The Hunger Games and Twilight. Bella would never talk about her pubic hair. Hell, her relationship with the gentleman vampire Edward is so sanitized that even now I can’t visualize them naked.

Little has no problem exposing her character, but she doesn’t spend much time exploring why Tamar is becoming a “chrome dome.” It might be a rare disease. It might be from stress, as Tamar’s younger sisters recently died in a car crash, leaving her parents devastated.  The story isn’t about the mystery of the hair loss; rather, it’s about how Tamar deals with it. This quest broadens as she finds herself trying to make peace with her dead sisters and make whole her family once again.

The writing is clean and conversational; the book reads like a diary, as we listen to Tamar confessing her story in first person. At times the logic is a bit faulty, and the author, perhaps trying to show just how tenacious Tamar is, gives her an extra challenge–an unnecessary challenge, I think. But otherwise there’s not much to trim, as Little weaves tight, spare pictures. In one chapter, the writing is so vivid and piercing that you are in the room, having an acupuncture needle pulled out of your back with a “sharp sucking sound.”  No surprise that this visit to a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine began as a short story; the author later expanded it into the current novel. It shows that with close editing, Little’s writing truly shines.

Ultimately, I ask myself whether this book is one I’d pass on to my daughter, and there’s no doubt I would. Tamar shows incredible resilience, and that’s the one quality I think our kids need today as they enter the sometimes scary and always challenging world of high school. Although Tamar is, at times, too resilient to be believable (I just can’t buy the scene where she’s ready to skip the wig and go bald to the prom), she still comes across as an authentic character. She is a teen who tries, risks, fails, succeeds, and yes, swears. For a role model, I’d pick her over Bella any day.

Marcie Gray acquired her appreciation for spare, conversational writing as a reporter and producer for CBC Radio. Today she’s at work on her own young adult novel.