This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hebert
Summary: Living with apathetic parents, Mona is the one who is responsible for her younger sister, Angélique (Bird). Bird is an eight year-old with a five year-old’s mind, and a desire to fly that makes her difficult to keep on the ground. Even though Mona complains about taking care of Bird, she loves her, filling a void left by the lack of their parents’ love. Interactions with neighbours on both sides lead to complications, and Mona and Bird are faced with decisions about facing their fears, connecting with others, and doing what is right, even without of the support of their parents.
Number of Pages: 125
Age Range: 15-17
Review: This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert is a story about a unique relationship between sisters. Hébert’s writing reads like poetry, and her ability to express complicated emotions is skilled and vivid. I loved her book and poetry metaphors and included them in the Memorable Quotes section.
What I couldn’t figure out though is when this book is set. Mona and Bird’s father seemed a bit old-fashioned in his attitudes toward his black neighbours, but unless I missed it, no specific time period was mentioned.
Even though Bird is the one who wants to fly, both sisters are like fledglings thrust from the nest. Mona must learn that she can trust others and be honest, while Bird takes a more literal approach by climbing tall trees to try to get to the other side of the sky. The imagery is hauntingly beautiful.
I also loved the juxtaposition of the neighbours. Loving and inspiring mother/son relationship on the one side, twisted and harmful father/daughter relationship on the other. Mona’s family is situated between the two in physical position and in attitudes. Hébert clearly depicts the soul crushing aspect of abuse with Bird’s observation of ‘dead fish eyes,’ but ends on a hopeful note despite the events of the book.
My favourite scene was when Bird touches her baby brother’s head and says, “I choose you.” The cycle of love started by Mona continues, and Bird casts aside any jealousy she might harbour after being usurped as the youngest child in this most beautiful and touching act.
I want to hold on to this one so I can savour it again.
Memorable Quotes:
“‘Okay. The soul’s a kind of flame we’re got inside us. Don’t look so worried: it can’t burn you. Actually, it’s more like a breath.’
‘Like a sigh?’
‘Uh-huh, but a soundless sigh that never ends . . . and keeps your body alive. Sometimes, the soul can’t figure out what to do with its body; that’s when we say it’s lost. Understand what the soul is now, Bird?’
‘No, and neither do you!'” – conversation between Mona and Bird from This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert, page 14
“I figured I’d do all my line at school before going hime. My parents are clueless where my homework’s concerned, but if ever they got nosy and realized I had lines to do, I’d get a slap. Not a real one though. My father doesn’t hit me anymore, ever since my mother threatened to turn him in. She shouldn’t have. I’d rather be hit. That way even though your cheek’s on fire, it doesn’t take long to cool down. Not when the burning ember in my head that I can’t get rid of; the fire lies smoldering under the ashes; all it takes is one look to fan the flames again.” – Mona from This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert, page 17
“A book. A closed book, sitting there. Doing its thing while you do yours. Or that’s the way it should be. You think you’re safe, you forget about keeping your guard up, a minute’s distraction, you open a book and bang! It’s inside you. Not just any book; most books get it wrong, like anything the teacher does. No, the kind of book that gets hold of a part of you you didn’t even know existed and takes you so high you never want to come down again. Of can’t come down again. What you see there is so possible, you can’t help but compare. Exhilaration inside, outside nothing to match.” – Mona from This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert, page 49
“A book of poems! Real ones. I suspected as much. The worst kind of words. All dressed up. Holding hands down the page. Not telling a story, not talking about one person in particular, just walking circles round you with their feelings. Before you know it, you find yourself stark naked at your center, without a story to cover up with or a single character to hide behind.” – Mona from This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert, page 53
“All sentences writing themselves in my head every day, and I can’t manage to get a single one down on paper. Not a single one comes out of my head without crossouts and nonsense written in the margin. Words that are clawed to the quick before they can reach the page. There’s too much danger.” – Mona from This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert, page 66
“Life’s a book. You get the one you’re hit with. Any old life. No way of knowing in advance what’s inside. You’re not allowed to read it first before you pay. It costs you big-time, you can’t exchange it afterwards, it’s secondhand, no money back. It’s covered in stains, all its pages earmarked. Who’d want such a thing?” – Mona from This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert, pages 79-80
“‘We can all proudly bear the battle scars of our time, write our secrets on the walls, refuse to be ashamed.'” – quote from Clarissa Pinkola Estès from This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert, page 125
This Side of the Sky by Marie-Francine Hébert is published by Red Deer Press (originally published in 2003 and translated into English in 2006 by Susan Ouriou).
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Split by Lori Weber
Summary: Living with her reclusive father after her mother walks out on them both, Sandra is trying to sort out what direction her life should take upon her graduation from high school. Sandra feels abandoned by her mother who left no contact information, but at the same time feels she can hardly blame her for wanting to get away from Sandra’s father and his dark memories of living in Germany before and during World War II. Aided at first by her boyfriend Danny, Sandra begins a search for her mother, finding clues to where she went in unexpected places. Sandra intends to tell her mother off if she finds her, but events conspire to show Sandra that her father is not as emotionally stunted or detached as she thinks he is.
Number of Pages: 152
Age Range: 16-18
Review: For a reluctant read, Split by Lori Weber is a complex book. Set in 1978, it features the story of Sandra and her parents, a father forever scarred by growing up in Nazi Germany and a mother who abandons her husband and daughter to carve a life of her own.
It’s complex, because at the beginning of the novel Sandra’s father is portrayed as the bad guy. Sandra believes he drove her mother away with his drinking and the fact that he lost his job due to his problems with authority. He seems to harbour little love and compassion for his daughter and wife, and when he ends up being home all the time due to his unemployment, Sandra’s mother can’t take it anymore.
But as the story develops, so do the characters of Sandra’s parents. Reading about Sandra’s father’s upbringing reveals the depth of his motivations, and how it would be difficult for him to love or to trust anyone after what he had been through. He blames himself for his wife leaving, but like an incident with his sister during his childhood, he is uncertain about how he could have prevented it even though he desperately wanted to. His story inspires empathy, and when he steps up in his role of Sandra’s father, it is a welcome display of his love and desire to protect her.
Sandra’s mother, on the other hand, becomes a less sympathetic character. She leaves her daughter and husband without offering contact information before her daughter’s high school graduation. Her motivations to start a new life on her own are perhaps understandable given the role of marriage during the time period, but her actions come off as selfish. I think she becomes unable to deal with her husband’s sorrow any longer, and that drives her to leave without looking back.
What’s interesting though is that Sandra comes to the same conclusions. She begins the book blaming her mother for leaving her alone with her horrible father, but by the end she comes to see her mother as being like the next door neighbour’s dog, an under-loved animal who just wanted to be free. There’s an immaturity to Sandra’s mother’s decisions, and I wondered why she decided to marry such a haunted man in the first place. Perhaps because of the shock factor of marrying a German at that time.
Sandra’s own decisions are influenced by her feelings over her parents’ split. Loneliness drives her into an ill-advised relationship with a childhood friend. She puts off deciding what to do with her life after high school because she’s dealing with her feelings over being abandoned. And in the end she realises that she is more like her father than she thought she was, but being like him is not the completely horrible thing she once thought it was.
Weber, as always, has an excellent command of character growth, even in the limited space of 152 pages. Due to mature themes I would recommend it for older teens, but this is a well-developed read for adults as well.
Memorable Quotes:
“I want to kill him, yet I know there’s a disturbing truth to his words. My father and I are both workers. We’ll both be spending our days in company-issued uniforms. Does that mean I’m embarking on a similar path to his? Will I too be working at the same job for the next two decades, leaving the house every morning before the sun is up? Oh well, who cares? At least I’ll have my own apartment and I won’t have to lock my bedroom door or cook for three people anymore.
I’ll just have myself to look after.” – Sandra from Split by Lori Weber, page 73
“‘What are you so hot about?’ he asks. I don’t answer. I’m too angry to even look at him anymore, and yet I can’t seem to tell him why I’m angry. It’s just like between me and my father. I feel the anger, yet I can’t seem to tell him why I’m angry. It’s all too hard to untangle or explain. The anger is just there, like a solid wall, one that you can’t get around but can’t break into understandable pieces either.” – Sandra from Split by Lori Weber, page 96
Split by Lori Weber is published by James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers (2005).
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Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman
Summary: Simon Irving is starting over in a new place again, thanks to his father’s job as Senior Vice-President at Interflux, the world’s largest corporation. He ends up getting into the local arts school with his talent for painting, and finally starts to make some friends who don’t hate him because of who his father is. When an opportunity comes up to stick it to Interflux due to an oversight, Simon jumps at it, sparking a school-wide teenage rebellion that launches his popularity and an epic battle between him and his father.
Number of Pages: 282
Age Range: 13-15
Review: With larger than life characters and situations, Gordon Korman’s Son of Interflux is a laugh out loud, inventive read with heart.
There are so many things I love about this book, but my favourite character is T.C. Serrette, the Canadian who acts as an agent/lawyer for the other students in tough situations. He stays at other people’s houses in exchange for his services, and he is especially skilled at speaking the language of adults.
I also loved the bonding between Simon and his father Cyril that happens over Simon’s mother’s cooking. I wouldn’t say that the female characters are that fleshed out in this book, but since Son of Interflux is about Simon, a teenage guy, I can see why Korman chose to write it that way. Simon obviously doesn’t understand woman or how to approach a relationship quite yet, but his attempts at doing so are very humourous.
It’s easy for me to just gush about this book, but suffice it to say if you’ve never read Korman before, this is a great book to start with. And if you have read him before, Son of Interflux is not to be missed. I can’t believe I had never read it before today.
Memorable Quotes:
“All his life, he’d never been able to get a girl to look at him twice, but someone as attractive as Wendy had seemed totally out of reach. Yet he’d had not one, but two opportunities with this great-looking dancer. The first time, he’d burned her for $6,700, and now he’d just thrown her out of his car. What was he – crazy? Ah, but he’d done it for his friends, the people who’d taken in a lonely Simon Irving in a new town and a new school. In the case of Phil and Sam, that was friendship above and beyond the call of duty, not caring if he was stupid, or impulsive , or harebrained, or the son of Interflux. These people deserved the stand he’d taken for them tonight.” – from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 218
“For art, thought Simon, but as he held her close, he had a great surge of feeling. About how this was Wendy, and how much he liked her, and how stupid he’d been to kick her out of his car. Even an idiot would have the brains not to throw away a third chance. She’d said she wouldn’t have anything to do with him if her were the last man in the universe! Well, now he was! Surely she could make an exception!” – from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 236
“Throughout all the Antiflux excitement, enthusiasm, and triumph, Interflux had always held the winning cards, and he had known that and forgotten it somewhere along the way. The fact was that, in real life, the tortoise would never beat the hare. The hare would always wake up at the last minute and pull it off in the final stretch.” – from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 251
“Phil stopped walking again. ‘I mean, think about it, Simon. What have we accomplished? Really!’
Simon shuffled uncomfortably, ‘Not much, I guess.’
Phil looked at him. ‘Then why was it so good?’ – conversation between Phil and Simon from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 258
“Sometimes the great organizing principle of the universe wasn’t such a bad guy after all.” – Simon from Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman, page 282
Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman is published by Scholastic Canada (1986).
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So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak
Summary: Cast as Ophelia in her school play, seventeen year-old Iris follows in Ophelia’s shoes when she falls for a man who is fourteen years her senior. Taken in by his attentions to her, Iris finds herself thankful that such a man would be attracted to her. What she doesn’t see at first is that the longer their relationship continues, the more isolated she becomes from her family and friends. When Mick’s uncontrollable anger turns violent, Iris takes the blame for his actions on herself, becoming smaller and smaller to avoid further outbursts. Eventually she finds herself unable to make choices without Mick, wondering if she has the strength to break free when she’s not sure she can or wants to live without him.
Number of Pages: 279
Age Range: 15-17
Review: The topic of women staying in abusive relationships is a difficult one to say the least, but Monique Polak handles it with grace and ultimately hope in “So Much It Hurts.”
I loved how Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet,” factored into the story. Iris lives the role of Ophelia, caught up in love at the expense of her reason. Mick seems to be tortured by inner demons much like Hamlet, although they do not excuse his behaviour and lack of respect for Iris. The quotes from the play at the beginning of each chapter set the tone, and I thought Iris naming their cat William Shakespeare was a nice touch.
What I appreciate about Polak’s work is that she is drawing on her own experience. Her story isn’t comfortable or pretty, but the act of writing it and putting it out there is one of courage. It opens up the discussion without providing easy answers, because ultimately aren’t any. Instead Polak gives her reader a glimpse into Iris’s mind and experiences, fostering empathy and further understanding.
There was one main plot point that I had trouble with though, and that was the fact that Iris’s teacher Ms. Coleman had had a relationship with Mick herself and experienced first hand his abusive ways. Why then would she want to work with him at all, let alone in a school setting, introducing him to her vulnerable female students?
It’s not an easy read with the violence and disturbing nature of Iris and Mick’s relationship, but it is an important one and the story itself flows quite easily. Polak is kind by not ending the story in tragedy, offering her reader hope that Iris will move on from this experience with wisdom and support from her friends and family.
Memorable Quotes:
“I feel Mick watching me, and I know that making me happy makes him happy. Which makes me even happier. More than anything else, I want to make Mick happy too. I’d do anything to make him happy. I know his life isn’t easy – he has work demands, and then there’s all the trouble he still has to sort out with his ex-wife – but I know if I love him right, I can make things easier for him. This is what love is. Putting the person you love before yourself. Sometimes even forgetting yourself because the other person’s happiness matters so much to you.” – Iris from So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak, page 76
“I’ve just stepped on a land mine.
Without thinking, I raise my elbow so it covers my face.
‘What do you think I’m going to do, hit you, Iris?’
Oh no, I think. I’ve made things even worse by covering my face. Why am I such an idiot?
‘No, I don’t think that,’ I say, and I realise I am cowering too, like William Shakespeare under the bed. I don’t know what to do to get Mick to calm down. I don’t know where to go to get away from his anger. I have nowhere to go.” – conversation between Mick and Iris from So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak, page 141
“I go back and forth between the apartment and the forest. The forest floor sinks under my feet when I try to take a step forward. What if I sink too? Who’ll find me here? No one will know where I am. And no one is coming to save me. I need to save myself. But how, when I’m afraid to even take a step?” – Iris from So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak, page 149
“‘Uh-huh,’ I say again. I’m getting kind of choked up. It’s not just the thought of Mrs. Karpman bringing me dinner; it’s also what she said about my deserving only good things. Part of me thinks she’s right. Part of me isn’t so sure.” – Iris from So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak, page 201
“I swear I get shivers when Francisco says, ‘”Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart.”‘ I have this feeling I will never forget those words ever – that they’re becoming part of me. I think back to last week’s blowout with Mick and how I felt when I was hiding in the closet afterward. That’s it exactly. I was sick at heart. Did Shakespeare know that feeling too? He must’ve, or else he’d never have been able to write that line. I think maybe I still am sick at heart. Mick’s been gentle with me all week, and he’s been helping me around the loft – straightening things up, warming up soup for dinner – and never once raising his voice, but that sick-at-heart feeling that won’t go away.” – Iris from So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak, page 209
“The word truth hits me like a kick in the stomach. It hits me so hard I nearly give in. I nearly tell her everything. The truth. Only now, something else occurs to me: Mom hasn’t always told me the truth. She’s angry with me, but I realize I’m angry with her too – and I have a right to be. But why does it feel so scary to be angry with her? Maybe because it’s a feeling I’ve never allowed myself. Maybe I’ve never dared to be angry with her. Because I’ve needed her so much.” – Iris from So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak, page 214
“Everyone knows about women who stay in unhealthy relationships. In abusive relationships even. But they don’t get good grades in school or have families who love them. I can’t be one of those women.
Or can I?” – Iris from So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak, pages 255-256
“Tender yourself more dearly.
Sometimes a person has to be tough on herself; other times she’s got to be gentle, cut herself some slack. It depends on the situation. Sometimes being tough is the only way to tender yourself more dearly. After you’ve been tough, then you need to be gentle with yourself again.” – Iris from So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak, page 279
So Much It Hurts by Monique Polak is published by Orca Books (2013).
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The Saver by Edeet Ravel
Summary: 17 year-old Fern reacts to her mother’s sudden death by trying to take control of her life. Remembering something her fourth grade teacher said about being able to save a million dollars in about fifteen years by cutting out major expenses like rent and food, Fern attempts to do just that. She takes a job as a janitor in apartment building for free rent and utilities, and finds other jobs to help her out with food and making money. Fern pours out her heart about her experiences in letters to an imaginary, alien friend named Xanoth, wishing that her world could be more like the perfect planet she has invented for him.
Number of Pages: 214
Age Range: 15-17
Review: A subtle but compelling read, The Saver by Edeet Ravel gives readers a unique view into Fern’s perspective through letters to her imaginary friend, Xanoth, an alien from a utopian world.
After Fern’s mother dies at the beginning of the book, Fern is left to confront her guilt over her last words to her mother, and the way she treated her. Craving certainty and security on an unconscious level, Fern latches on to a comment her fourth grade teacher made about becoming a millionaire in fifteen years. Life with her mother was full of financial uncertainty as Fern’s mother worked as a house cleaner and was continually plagued by migraines, and somehow Fern believes a million dollars is going to make everything right again.
Fern proves herself to be an extremely resourceful character, lying about her age to gain freedom and work, and finding ways to provide for all of her basic needs without spending money. It all seems to be going well until Fern runs into some challenging tenants at the apartment building where she is the janitor and has trouble keeping up the punishing pace she has set for herself.
It’s a deceptively simple book. Ravel takes her reader on journey through Fern’s grieving process, but it is only very near the end that Fern realises her own motivations. I loved how she comes to know she and her mother really loved each other, even though it wasn’t something they said. Fern grows from a sulky teen into a more confident young woman, willing to put her trust in others once again.
Due to some mature themes, I’d recommend The Saver to mid to older teen readers.
Memorable Quotes:
“While he was upstairs I said, ‘I hate that Mom had to work there.’
Linden said, ‘If the world was made up of people like Felicity there wouldn’t be war or starvation or pollution.’
I said it was only because she was scared of everyone, but Linden said, ‘No, she was a nice person. Lots of people are scared and it makes them nasty, not nice.'” – conversation between Fern and Linden from The Saver by Edeet Ravel, page 209
“The whole dinner already seems like a dream.
I thought Linden and sisters had a perfect life, but they don’t. They’re all messed up about being rich and about the future.
I guess no one has a perfect life. But the opposite of perfect – that happens all the time. It’s the easiest thing in the world to lose everything. Your home, your job, everything.” – Fern from The Saver by Edeet Ravel, page 212
“What Victor doesn’t realise is that you have to trust someone and be close to them to complain. You have to trust that they’ll still like you. Or that they won’t fall apart or begin talking about the right path. Maybe Mom knew I complained to her because I knew it wouldn’t change how she felt about me. She didn’t say ‘I love you,’ but that’s because of her shyness.
Jack’s right. Everything she did was to set up a life for me. And if she loved me without saying it, I think she knew I loved her, even though I didn’t say it either.” – Fern from The Saver by Edeet Ravel, page 214
The Saver by Edeet Ravel is published by Groundwood Books (2008).
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Rough Magic by Caryl Cude Mullin
Summary: When Sycorax discovers at an early age that she is a magical prodigy, she uses her powers to protect her father’s kingdom as she grows. Soon though she begins to crave more power, but a miscalculation in her plans leaves her stranded on a magical island about to give birth. Sycorax extracts the magic from the island for herself, but ends up leaving her son Caliban all alone after harnessing the power eventually kills her. Caliban lives by himself on the mysterious island until one day Prospero and his daughter Miranda arrive, and getting to know them will affect the rest of his life.
Number of Pages: 264
Age Range: 15-17
Review: You have to be a sharp reader to keep up with Rough Magic. This was my second time reading it and I still had to restart it twice so I could figure out exactly what was going on.
Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Caryl Cude Mullin expands on the play by giving more background on Sycorax, Caliban’s mother, and continuing the story after Prospero, Miranda and Caliban leave the island. It was a lot to fit in, and the timeline had to jump ahead on several occasions to accommodate everything. At times I had trouble adjusting to the leaps in plot development.
In an odd way though, having the story expanded a little by Mullin’s work made me want even more. This is a multi-generational book, and while it focuses on the characters who have direct contact with Caliban, I wanted to know more about Sycorax’s daughter, especially when Calypso, Sycorax’s granddaughter, shows up with an interesting background story of her own.
I still don’t think I’m clear on why Sycorax left her father’s kingdom in the first place. Were the visions she had of the future so disturbing that she didn’t want to be around when they came true? How did she know if the future she was seeing involved her staying or leaving?
Even though I did have trouble with the specifics, I was engaged by the characters and intrigued by the idea of an author adding to another’s work, especially one as famous as Shakespeare. It’s a gutsy choice, and I generally liked what Mullin added.
Without The Tempest background though, Rough Magic is a pretty fantastical book that moves at a quick pace with lots of action. It’s not what I would call a reluctant read, but may help make Shakepeare’s tale more accessible to high school readers.
Memorable Quotes:
“In seeking to win her freedom, she had built herself a cage.
Disappointed and thwarted hopes made a bitter brew to swallow, and she had to drink it every day. It made her savage and cruel. She could not tame herself; she did not remember how to feel mercy.” from Rough Magic by Caryl Cude Mullin, page 51
“‘Are you frightened of it, Caliban?’ she asked quietly, staring at the land ahead. ‘I am,’ she added, putting him at ease.
‘Yes,’ he replied, simply. He was not ashamed of fear, not like the men of the ship. They ridiculed fear in themselves and others. They were afraid of being afraid, Caliban thought, and the silliness of that thought made him smile.” – conversation between Miranda and Caliban from Rough Magic by Caryl Cude Mullin, page 80
“And Leviathan circled the world, his tail caught between his jaws.
‘What does it mean?’ wondered Chiara.
All journeys lead back to their beginning, the heavens hummed.
‘What’s the sense of that?’ Chiara said. ‘If you just end up where you started then nothing changes.’
You change. And that changes everything.” – conversation between Chiara and the heavens from Rough Magic by Caryl Cude Mullin, page 175
Rough Magic by Caryl Cude Mullin is published by Second Story Press (2009).
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Amy Mathers has been passionate about reading from a very young age, and hopes others will share her enthusiasm for funding a teen book award. Read more Follow Amy
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