looking for jj by Anne Cassidy

Looking for jj explores the interesting topic of a juvenile offender attempting to reintegrate into society. Told in the voice of the offender, the story is divided into four parts, each focusing on a segment in her life.

The first part of the novel is set in the present. Alice Tully reads everything she can about Jennifer Jones, the girl who has served six years for the murder of another girl. The newspapers are all about Jennifer being released after serving her sentence. Alice is obsessed because Alice is Jennifer. Jennifer was in fact released six months earlier and set up with a new identity and a job. Now living under the name of Alice Tully, and working at a coffee shop, she lives with a social worker named Rosie Sutherland in Croydon. Only three people know that Jennifer Jones is now Alice Tully and that she was paroled early; Rosie, Patricia Coffey who is director of Monksgrove where Alice was incarcerated, and Jill Newton, her probation officer.

But it's not long before the hunt is on for Jennifer Jones. One day Alice notices that a stranger has been frequenting the coffee shop. When he leaves the shop forgetting some papers on the table, Alice discovers that he has written down the names of the three girls involved long ago in the event that ended in the murder of one of them. For Alice this is more than coincidental. Panicked, Alice leaves her job, and races home. However, Rosie encourages her to go back to work, telling Alice it is impossible that anyone could know where she is. But Alice knows that the private detective is there because of the birthday card she sent her mom a few weeks ago. Rose, Patricia, and Jill don't know about the card but do eventually find out and they realize that the private detective is someone hired by "Alice's" mother to locate her.

In an attempt to throw off the detective they create a diversion but ultimately this proves unsuccessful because Alice is found out by someone her mentor and her probation officer never suspected; someone who is working undercover. This person essentially forces Alice to consent to an in-depth interview.

In this part of the book, through a series of flashbacks, Jennifer's life up until she commits murder at the age of ten is revealed. Her mom is a beautiful woman who works as a model. But as she ages, Carol Jones finds it increasingly difficult to gain employment. As a result, Carol gradually abandons Jennifer, first leaving her alone in their flat when she is only six years old. Eventually over the years Jennifer is either left alone, left to live with her grandmother, or comes to live at home for short periods of time with her mother. Jennifer is desperate to be with her mother but she is too busy trying to eke out a life as a model. As Jennifer's anger at being abandoned grows, she begins to act out becoming increasingly violent.

The second part of the novel focuses on the year when Jennifer and her mother move to Berwick Waters, when she is ten years old. Jennifer forms a friendship with two girls in the complex where she lives; Michelle Livingstone and the younger, vulnerable Lucy Bussell. The three girls have a complex relationship in which Lucy is often bullied by the two older girls, while Michelle and Jennifer often fight. One day when the three girls go on a walk to the reservoir in Berwick Waters, to hunt out Lucy's brother's "den", the strained relationship between them comes to a head. An unexpected discovery enrages Jennifer and she almost causes one friend to drown. But a second provocation isn't so innocent and of the three girls that went to the reservoir that day, only two return. It is a day that forever changes their lives.

The third part of the book returns to the present and picks up the story of Alice. as she takes her boyfriend, Frankie, up on his offer to spend some time at his house in Brighton. Once there Alice tries to settle in, but the specter of doing the interview places an overwhelming shadow over her. When the story is unexpectedly leaked to the press, Alice must confront Frankie and the realization that her current life is probably over. She will have to start anew with yet another identity. This new identity is briefly covered in part four of the book. It is also revealed through flashbacks, the rest of what happened that fateful day in Berwick Waters.

Discussion

Looking for jj is a well written novel that explores the thorny issue of children who commit violent crimes. Cassidy builds a believable backstory of abandonment and emotional neglect that leads a ten-year-old girl to commit murder. Jennifer's progression to an increasingly violent and disturbed child is accurately portrayed, from her cruelty towards her grandmother's pet to an assault on a classmate, to her impulsive actions with her friends. Yet this is juxtaposed with Jennifer's innate kindness towards the smaller, timid Lucy, and her innocence at what her mother is doing to earn money. The author creates a situation where it is impossible not to empathize with Jennifer who admires her mother and who so desperately wants to be with her. Jennifer is a solid, realistic character with a complex personality. She is still struggling to come to terms with what happened six years ago and doesn't believe she deserves to have any sort of happiness.

Equally well developed is the character of Jennifer's mother, Carol Jones, a young mother who slips from catalogue modelling into pornography and prostitution. Carol not only neglects Jennifer but eventually decides to use her daughter in an act of ultimate betrayal. Even when Jennifer is at Monksgrove, she manipulates her for her own gain. This pattern of betrayal continues into the present, making Jennifer realize she cannot let her mother back into her life, despite her desperate need for a mother's love.  In contrast to Carol Jones, is the loveable, stable Rosie, who cares for Jennifer and offers her protection and a chance to start over. Rosie offers Jennifer the first real home she has ever had.

The novel asks readers to consider some fairly heavy questions such as whether or not children who commit serious crimes such as murder can be rehabilitated, whether the public has a right to know when they are released and where they live and whether they have the right to privacy?

Looking for jj was first published in 2004 and won both the Carnegie Medal in 2005 and the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 2004. Cassidy specializes in writing crime novels and thrillers for teens. This is a good novel, with an interesting and unique topic.

Book Details:
Looking for jj by Anne Cassidy
Toronto: Scholastic Press    304 pp.

Bunheads by Sophie Flack

Sophie Flack's debut novel, Bunheads tells the story of nineteen year old Hannah Ward, a member of the corps du ballet in the prestigious Manhattan Ballet company and her internal struggle to determine the direction of her life.

Hannah, who always wanted to be a ballet dancer, left home at age fourteen to train at the company's school and is now a senior corps member, performing three to four ballets in an evening. Other members of the corps include Beatrice (Bea)Hall, Daisy, and the highly competitive, Zoe Mortimer. Otto Klein, the director of the Manhattan Ballet, is the one who chooses the ballets the company will perform and who will dance the solos. Each dancer in the corps du ballet dreams of promotion, working hard to attain this goal, often at great personal sacrifice.

One evening after being selected to understudy a solo part, Hannah decides to have dinner at her cousin, Eugene's West Village restaurant. There she meets Jacob, an NYU student who is still struggling to find his groove in life and who is also a singer at the restaurant. As her on-again, off-again relationship with Jacob develops, Hannah begins to reconsider her life and her goals. Jacob has opened her eyes to the world outside of ballet.

At the same time Hannah is also being pursued by a handsome wealthy balletomone, Matt Fitzgerald, whose jet-set lifestyle intrigues her. While Matt opens Hannah's eyes to the lifestyle of the rich and famous that ballet dancers sometimes step into, Jacob is more down to earth and relevant to Hannah's background and life.

But Hannah faces a difficult choice; to put everything into dance. "Don't think, just dance." or to step outside the only world she has known to do some of the things she as an adult would now like to do.

Discussion

Bunheads is definitely one of the better teen reads for 2011.This novel succeeds because the author knows her subject. The majority of readers will not have any concept of what it is like to be a ballet dancer in a major company; the long exhausting hours of practice, the pain endured in pushing the body to its limits, the exhilaration of performing on stage and obtaining the recognition so dearly desired, the complex relationships that exist within a major dance company and the difficulty of having any semblance of a normal life outside of training and performing. But Sophie Flack is able to take the reader into that world, fill it out and make it real and comprehensible to her readers.

Hannah is a believable character who struggles to discover just what it is she wants for her life; the insular world of ballet or to discover more about the world around her. Despite her driven, high-achieving nature, when Hannah begins to see the cost of success in the world of ballet, she begins to rethink her priorities and her goals.

Bunheads is a nice change from the usual young adult fare and will appeal to those teens who are involved in the arts world, especially the world of dance. It gives them the opportunity to both the positive and negative aspects of a dance career. The novel touches on issues prevalent in the ballet world; dieting and anorexia, injuries and the social world of ballet.

Book Details:
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
New York: Little, Brown and Company 2011
294pp.

On The Volcano by James Nelson

Katie MacDonald lives with her father Jack, in the fictitious Great Territories, on the slopes of a volcano. Her father and mother fled to this isolated area of New Pacifica when rebels attacked towns near to where they were previously living. Katie's mother died, shortly after the move and she and her father have lived on their own for many years in a log cabin that he built. 

Katie's world is small; consisting of her father and his friend, Lorraine who drops by to help with work. Her dream is to accompany her father on one of his infrequent trips to Badwater for supplies. Her father reluctantly agrees to let her accompany him on his next trip to Badwater, with the stipulations that she wait until she is sixteen and that she dress as a boy named George to avoid attracting attention.

Despite these precautions, Katie as George, does attract the attention of two boys whom she ends up fighting. When seventeen-year old Jess Starkey is beaten by Katie he doesn't forget the humiliation, to horrifying consequences. During their time in Badwater, Jack and Katie also meet the sheriff, Sheriff Benson and his Deputy, Adam Summerfield. Katie is immediately attracted to tall, handsome Adam.

Upon their return to their home on the slope of the volcano, Katie and her father resume their life but soon discover that things have changed. One day while hunting pheasant, Katie finds a man's glove in a pine grove. Not long after, during the summer, Katie has a surprise encounter with Jess Starkey that turns ugly and ends terribly. In a life and death situation, Katie's father comes to her rescue with the result that their lives are changed forever. They now realize that the peaceful existence they once knew is gone and that this will bring more people to their volcano. When Jess Starkey does not return from his trip up the volcano, this sets in motion an sequence of events that bring both tragedy and happiness to Katie.

Discussion

On The Volcano begins with an interesting premise but quickly derails. The beginning of the novel and initial development of the plot work but come undone after Jess Starkey's murder. The book's unique setting and the hint of tragedy and romance made it initially very appealing. However, after Katie's encounter with Jess, author James Nelson took the story in a disappointing direction that was increasingly violent with both murder and lying becoming the norm for the two main characters as well as the two supporting characters. And these actions seemed to be done with little compunction and not much internal conflict. It was as though they felt they had little choice but to do what they did. "I thought about it. I had killed a man. I, Katie MacDonald, an otherwise nice enough person, had hunted another human being like an animal. I'd figured out his path, hidden, waited for him, surprised him, killed him. Put an arrow through him just like a deer. ould I have let him walk away?I didn't see how."

There were other choices Katie and her father could have made that were wiser, more honest and more in tune with the way the author had initially developed their characters in the novel. They were portrayed as peaceful people who simply wanted to live their lives in a simple manner. Jack MacDonald abhorred the violence that was encroaching on his life in Little Fish and so he moved far away so as not to be a part of it. They both respected all living things and killed only the animals they needed for food.

Instead we see Jack as a man who lies to cover up a murder and thus sets the example for his daughter Katie, to do the same. He does this despite recognizing that the Sheriff is a very understanding and intelligent man who likely has an idea of what has happened and who might understand the circumstances. Perhaps that is why Jack never reveals to Sheriff Benson the truth - he knows what happened and as the law he has decided not to proceed further.

It was also particularly disturbing that Katie could simply move on with her life, without much thought as to what she did.When questioned by Sheriff Benson,  Katie doesn't offer him the truth, although she calls it that - she lies and she knows it. "Technically, that was the truth. I didn't follow him around the trees. But in my heart I knew I was lying. I didn't follow him around the trees, because I followed him a deadlier way."

The author seems to suggest that because it's probable Sheriff Benson knows the real truth behind what happened to Ben Starkey, this makes what happened fine. The reader knows the Starkey's were violent, bad men and so does the Sheriff who represents the law. And as the law, he has decided to leave things be. Justice was done. By our standards today, this seems immoral and unjust. Certainly Katie in her own mind, feels completely justified in her actions and the book ends on an almost "happily ever after" tone.

On The Volcano has a unique setting -- a cabin on a volcano in a western setting. The smoking volcano is a symbol of the violence that is an undercurrent in their lives - just waiting to erupt. The plot is also unusual for a young adult novel in that it focuses on a young girl in a western setting who is involved in series of tragic events but who overcomes these obstacles to find happiness and love.

James Nelson's previous works were all non-fiction. On The Volcano is his first young adult novel, published at the astonishing age of 91! Young readers will probably find this is a novel that just doesn't work, with too many serious moral issues that are never treated with any depth.

Book Details:
On The Volcano by James Nelson
New York: G. P. Putnam & Sons    2011
272 pp.

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Author Jo Treggiari offers teen readers a dystopian adventure/romance in Ashes, Ashes, that in my opinion, had great potential but ultimately fails to meet the mark.

Sixteen year old Lucy "Lucky" Holloway is surviving in post-apocalyptic New York City. The world started to fall apart when she was eleven years old. At that time, the first floods came, along with severe storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and then earthquakes. The storms melted the polar ice caps altering the shape of the continents. Many low-lying cities were obliterated. New York City became six or seven scattered islands connected to the mainland by bridges.

Four years after the severe weather began, a smallpox plague began to ravage society. The first wave of the plague killed many people but then it mutated and a second more devastating wave occurred in which most of the remaining population was killed. Only 1 out of a million people survived the second wave.

As the plague intensified, Lucy continued attending school never quite noticing that there were more and more empty desks. She was an outsider in high school, often going unnoticed by her peers. Posters of lists of symptoms appeared all over school. Lucy was repeatedly called to the health office for blood tests. The last time she was called for yet another blood sample, she'd discovered a thick dossier on her. When she was asked about why she had never been vaccinated, Lucy told them it was due to her older brother Alex's fatal reaction to a vaccination.

Lucy lost her superjock younger brother Rob, her brainiac older sister, Susan "Maggie" and both her parents. Eventually, Lucy left her family's home for the shelters in the city. Many of the highrises in New York city were massive concrete cairns containing the bodies of thousands of plague victims. Friendly bombing had turned areas of New York city into rubble. When the shelter she was living at was raided by "Sweepers", government workers searching for plague survivors, Lucy decided to strike out on her own.

She fled into the wilderness of Central Park, taking with her her mother's shawl, her father's hunting knife, a box of freeze-dried food, a bottle of spring water and her tenth-grade yearbook. She made herself a camp in the wilderness and this is where we find her when Ashes, Ashes opens.

However, the course of Lucy's life is changed once again when she goes out on a walk and is hunted by a pack of wild dogs. She is aided in escaping the dogs by a handsome young man named Aidan. He tells her that he's been watching her and that she is being hunted by the Sweepers who send out the dogs to find survivors. The Sweepers are the people who live in the Compound on Roosevelt Island where the smallpox hospital is located. Aidan encourages her to come live with his band of survivors. Although Lucy declines his invitation, when her home is destroyed days later, she decides she has had enough of living on her own and treks to the survivor's camp on Ward's Island.

But Aidan's camp isn't safe either and Lucy learns that there are frequent raids by the Sweepers who kidnap people and infect them with the plague. Lucy, Aidan and their fellow survivors decide to rescue a recent group of kidnapped children only to discover that the situation was a cleverly laid trap to catch Lucy, the sole unvaccinated survivor of the plague.

There's no doubt that Treggiari develops the setting of her story well with vivid descriptions of the destruction wreaked by the climate disasters and the rapid annihilation of the population by plague. Because Lucy spends the first part of the story alone, the first 100 pages or so lack dialogue for the most part. However, the author does manage to portray Lucy's resilience and strength of character in describing how she has survived for over a year by herself. Treggiari also utilizes detailed description and two major events to capture the reader's attention.

The middle section of the book deals primarily with Lucy's struggle to fit into Aidan's camp and details her growing attraction to Aidan. There is a strong development of conflict between Lucy and another survivor, Del who is also attracted to Aidan. I felt the author did a good job of portraying the difficulties survivors would have living in the post-apocalyptic wilderness as well as their fears and hopes.

The ending however, was less satisfying. Although suspenseful, the result was predictable and anti-climatic.

For those who might be puzzling over the book's title, Ashes, Ashes is a reference to a version of Ring Around the Rosy whose origins are traced back to the Great Bubonic Plague of London in 17th century England.

Ring around the rosy
A pocketful of posies
"Ashes, Ashes"
We all fall down!

The rosy red rash was a symptom of the plague, usually a rash with a ring around it. Posies were carried in pockets to ward off the smell of disease which was thought to be the way illness was transmitted. The ashes, ashes refers to the cremation of dead bodies, the blackening of the skin and so forth. Plague survivors in Ashes,Ashes are described as being hideously deformed, with blackened skin and red eyes.




Book Details:
Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari
New York: Scholastic Press 2011
344pp.