Hey Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

The Prologue opens with Jarrett being taught to drive by his grandfather Joe in a cemetery. When they visit Joe's parents' grave, Jarrett wonders where his mother will end up and if he'll ever meet his long absent father in this life.

Jarrett's grandparents, Shirley Ruth Olson and Joseph D. Krosoczka were married on August 28, 1948 in Worcester, Massachusetts. They met in high school. With World War II, Joe enlisted even though he was only seventeen and spent the war building highways in Guam. Shirley broke up with him during the war but after the war they reconnected and were married. 

Joe had various jobs while they started their family: first there was Joey and then Leslie was born in 1955, the year Joe opened his factory. Stephen was born next, and then Shirley miscarried, which really affected her. They then had two more girls, Lynn and then Holly.

Jarrett's mother, Leslie became pregnant. The man she believed to be the father claimed the baby wasn't his. Although her mother was upset, Leslie had the baby, named Jarrett and moved into a house her father bought for her. Life was good for Jarrett and his mother for the first few years, but soon cracks appeared.

After being pulled over by police with Jarrett in the car, Jarret's grandparents decided to seek custody of him. Leslie had been stealing for some time and they didn't want Jarrett to end up in foster care. So Jarrett went to live with Joe and Shirley and their home became his new home. Soon Jarrett was sent to preschool. Life at his grandparents home could be bad at times too. Joe and Shirley would fight when Joe came home drunk, but Shirley also drank and swore.

Jarrett began attending Gates Lane School where he had some wonderful teachers. Jarrett thought his mother would be back but she would never return. They wrote letters to one another, his mother making her own cards. His mother missed his birthdays, but the rest of the family were always there. Jarrett also learned the truth about his mother - that she was an addict and was in jail.

As it turned out, his mother began using drugs when she was thirteen-years-old but over time things got much worse. She stole to buy heroin, had younger sisters return stolen merchandise for the money to buy drugs, and even stole from her own parents. 

But for Jarrett, the lifesaver would turn out to be his artistic talent. He used his art to help him cope as a child. Art classes at Worcester Art Museum, art classes in high school at Holy Name High School, becoming a cartoonist for the school newspaper all helped him develop his gift.

As high school came to a close, Jarrett was able to reach out to his father, establish a relationship with him and accept his mother as she was - his mother who loved him but also a person with an addiction.

Discussion

Hey Kiddo is a poignant memoir of cartoonist, artist, Jarrett Krosoczka's growing upin his grandparents home because his mother Leslie was a heroin addict. The graphic memoir which is divided into eight chapters, begins with the story of his grandparents Joe and Shirley and follows their early family life, his mother's unplanned pregnancy and abandonment by Jarrett's father and his growing-up years until college.

Jarrett's memoir explores the disappointment and loss he experienced when his mother spiralled out of control because of her heroin addiction, resulting in her being in jail or in treatment programs. This resulted in him having to live with his grandparents and her missing birthdays, graduations and other special family times. But it also chronicles the love and care his grandparents gave him and his journey towards a relationship with his father, Richard Hennessy.

Initially Jarrett was angry and felt he never wanted to meet his father. Unlike his grandfather however, Jarrett believed in facing the ghosts of the past. One of them was his father. When he learned his father's name, his absence became a presence to him. Jarrett didn't know what to do with this information so he did nothing.

However, Jarrett's father wrote him a letter apologizing but Jarrett wasn't keen on responding. It was a transformative experience at a camp for children with cancer that made Jarrett wonder if he had siblings through his father. This was the motivation for Jarrett reaching out to his father and eventually establishing a lasting relationship with him.

The memoir also explores the positive effect art had on his life, eventually becoming his life's work. For Jarrett, art was a lifeline that allowed him to cope with what was happening in his life. It allowed him an escape and some control, something children and teens do not have. Drawing was initially as way to get attention as a child, but eventually evolved into a way to deal with life as a teen.

Despite all the challenges Jarrett encountered growing up, the memoir ends on a hopeful, positive tone with the author recognizing what he does have in his life at the time of his high school graduation.  In his Author's Note, Jarrett tells readers the important events in his life post-high school. He writes that what happens in your childhood and teen years does not have to be perpetuated into adulthood. He also mentions the toll addiction took on his mother.

There is also an interesting note on the art in the graphic memoir. Jarrett's grandfather always wore a pocket square in his breast pocket of his suit jacket. After his grandfather passed away, Jarrett's then eighteen-month-old daughter Zoe chose a burnt orange pocket square as something she would always keep. The burnt orange became part of the limited palette for the memoir and is the colour used in the title, also a reference to what Jarrett was often called by his grandparents.

Hey Kiddo offers a touching glimpse into a childhood framed by addiction, loss, but also forgiveness, acceptance and the meaning of family. The dedication says it all " For every reader who recognizes this experience, I see you."

Book Details:

Hey Kiddo. How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

New York: Scholastic, Graphix     2018

299 pp.

Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez

Seventeen-year-old Carmen Bianchi is a violin prodigy. She's won a Grammy for best classical album and has been on the cover of many weekly magazines - the face of virtuosity in America. For the past four years she's be preparing for the prestigious Guarneri competition. Winning means being awarded one of the richest grand prizes in classical music; fifty thousand dollars, the use of the 1742 Guarneri del Gesu violin for four years, and the opportunity to perform with symphonies throughout the world. Carmen knows she will likely be one of the three musicians to make it to the final round and she desperately wants to win this competition. Winning the Guarneri will make Carmen a superstar. But Carmen has one major obstacle: Jeremy King.

Jeremy King is an eighteen-year-old violinist from London, England. He too is a virtuoso. When Carmen tries to catch a discrete glimpse of him outside the Chicago Symphony Center, he sees her and later sends her a nasty email. From this difficult beginning, Carmen and Jeremy gradually begin a love-hate relationship. However, Carmen's mother, Diana, learns of their relationship, and warns Carmen that Jeremy's motives are not honest. Carmen doesn't trust her mother and continues seeing Jeremy in an act of rebellion.

In the meantime, it is revealed that Carmen has been struggling with prescription drug addiction. While on tour in Tokyo last year, Carmen had a meltdown on stage. Her mother, who is also her manager, arranged for Carmen to take the anti-anxiety drug, Inderal. Although the drug calms her, it has begun to stifle her playing, removing the passion she once had. Soon Carmen finds herself taking the drug not just for performances but also for her lessons with her elderly Russian teacher, Yuri. Taking Inderal makes Carmen feel like she is a fraud, a fake who goes through the motions to make music. In an attempt to recover what she feels she has lost, and after witnessing Jeremy's impassioned playing, Carmen stops taking the Inderal for a period of time.

When Jeremy and Carmen make it to the semifinals, the Guarneri competition becomes much more complicated due to their entanglement and even more so when Jeremy makes an astonishing request of Carmen - to throw the competition and allow him to win because of a difficult family situation. Carmen, who is shocked by Jeremy's request, refuses to see him. When the three finalists are announced and Jeremy is not one of them, Carmen begins to suspect that something isn't quite right. A little investigating on her part, soon turns up the shocking reason for Jeremy's absence in the competition finals. Torn between her desire to win and her desire to do what is right, Carmen has a decision to make. It is one that will affect everyone's future.

Discussion

Virtuosity provides a fascinating look into the competitive world of classical music, and some of the issues young musicians must navigate around as they develop their careers. Martinez was herself a classical violinist and because she is writing about a subject she knows well, this novel is a realistic portrayal of the classical music world. Many young musicians experience extreme pressure from parents and teachers to lay down that perfect performance. In the competitive world of music, performances must be perfect, dynamic and unique - no small thing for a young person. This pressure is in addition to coping with memorizing huge amounts of repertoire, dealing with criticism that can at times be brutal and working through injuries. Some musicians struggle with eating disorders as well as with addictions to prescription medications. Others experience the same sort of self-doubt that Carmen experiences in Virtuosity.

Carmen is a strong, honest character, who faces some hard realities in both her personal life and also her musical career. As it turns out, Carmen's real obstacle proves to be her mother, Diana, who is stifling Carmen by controlling every aspect of her life, and who is also willing to do anything so that Carmen can have the career she never had. Because of this, Carmen is at risk of losing her integrity as a person and also as a musician. She has been doing everything for someone else - her mother and her wealthy grandparents who purchased a Gibson Stradivarius for her. In making the decision she does, she allows herself the time to discover again, why she is playing violin. She has to find out what it is that she truly wants for her life. Those teens who are involved in pursuing a musical career will relate to the themes in Virtuosity. 

Book Details:
Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez
Simon & Schuster 2011
294 pp.

Shattered by Melody Carlson

Cleo is almost eighteen and a senior. She and her friend, Lola, want to attend a Christian concert in the city, at the Coliseum. Cleo is hoping to drive her father's car to the concert, but Cleo's mother is having none of it. When Cleo balks, her mother offers to come with her and Lola, sacrificing her own night out at her best friend's bachelorette party. Cleo doesn't want her mother to do this. She wants to go with her friend, not her mother. 

This concert is special to Cleo and Lola because it is Lola's last day in  the city. Lola's parents divorced last summer and  her mother Vera, is taking a new job in San Diego.The concert is one last time for Cleo and Lola to do something together before Lola moves.

Cleo is completely frustrated because her mother will not allow her any space to try new things and spread her wings as a young adult. She feels that her mother is suffocating her. But no matter how much she argues or tries to convince her mother of this, she will not let go. " 'There will always be something,' I say a bit too loudly. 'There will be car wrecks and epidemics and murders and all sorts of horrible things happening all over the planet, Mom. But that does not mean they'll happen to me. Don't you get that? Someday you will have to let me go! ' "

Upset at her mother's suffocating ways, Cleo decides to plan to attend the concert without her mother's knowledge. If she can't drive, Cleo decides she and Lola will take public transit to the concert. Although Cleo feels guilty about disobeying her mother and lying to her, her desire to be more independent overrules her feelings. When she and Lola arrive at the concert, Cleo pushes aside her feeling of guilt and tries to enjoy herself. After the concert they arrive safely home and Cleo decides she will confess to her mother what she did in the morning. Cleo never gets that chance because, incredibly,  her mother is killed in a carjacking outside the Coliseum that night!

From the messages left on her phone, Cleo learns that her mother returned home early and when she found Cleo and Lola gone, she drove to the Coliseum to pick them up. Her mother arrived early and while driving around waiting for the concert to end, she was carjacked and murdered. Cleo concludes that if she had not disobeyed her mother and gone to the concert, her mother would be alive today. Cleo truly believes she is responsible for her mother's death. It is her darkest secret that she will never reveal to anyone. She is overwhelmed with grief and pain and in order to cope with this pain Cleo begins taking tranquilizers. She becomes addicted to the prescription drugs and is soon buying drugs from a local dealer.

But there are several people in Cleo's life who are there to help her - her mother's sister, Kellie, who arrives shortly after the tragedy. Although Cleo treats her with disdain at first, calling her "slightly functional"  and tries to push her away, it is Kellie who is Cleo's saviour. Eventually things spiral downward to the point that Cleo is hospitalized. Her Aunt Kellie confronts her regarding her addiction based on her experience with her brother Kevin. She discovers Cleo's secret and helps her move forward with her grieving, encouraging her to experience the pain of her mother's death and telling her that she is not responsible for what happened to her mother. Cleo also meets a guy, Daniel Crane who she's been interested in since her sophomore year,  from her school. He expresses a sudden interest in her and it is this relationship that provides some of the impetus for Cleo to get well. 

Discussion

The storyline in Shattered  is very contrived, with Cleo's mother's murder the plot device that moves the story from one about a controlling mother to teen addiction. It is overly melodramatic and stretches credibility. Cleo's mother was highly dysfunctional and it was understandable that Cleo would try to break free of her mother's suffocating grip on her life. Cleo goes out for the first time in her life and her mother is murdered - making for a very contrived and almost unbelievable plot. In most normal families, what would be happening the night of the concert would be discussed well before the date. In the case of things happening last minute, Cleo's mother could have driven her daughter and her friend to the concert. She could have picked her up afterwards. This is what normal parents do if the circumstances are such that there is a safety issue. And the vast majority of teens attend concerts without anything dire happening.

It is interesting that in the front page of the book, Carlson indicates that "some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance....." While this may be true, many teens would find it hard to identify with the potential lessons in the book, given the strange circumstances they are framed within. Framing these issues under such extreme circumstances, detracts from the goal of the book and that of the publisher NavPress which as stated in the front of the book is "to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical."

Despite the ridiculous turn of events, there are some good issues that can be discussed with teens; "helicopter parenting", teen independence, obedience, lying, prescription drug abuse and family life.

Book Details:
A Daughter's Regret. Shattered by Melody Carlson
NavPress 2011
199 pp.