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Library | Audience | Home Location | Material Type | Shelf Number | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Central | Teen/Young Adult | Open Stacks Fiction | Open Stacks Teen Book | VALEN | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Positive.
Negative.
It's how you look at it. . . .
Someone shoves a photo negative into Rowan's hands. She is distracted but, frankly, she has larger problems to worry about. Her brother is dead. Her father has left. Her mother won't get out of bed. She has to take care of her younger sister. And keep it all together . . .
But Rowan is curious about the mysterious boy and the negative. Who is he? Why did he give it to her? The mystery only deepens when the photo is developed and the inconceivable appears.
Everything is about to change for Rowan. . . . Finally, something positive is in her life.
Award-winning author Jenny Valentine delivers a powerful and life-affirming story of grief, friendship, and healing that will resonate long after the last page.
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Valentine's second novel (following the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winner Me, the Missing, and the Dead) focuses on British teenager Rowan and her younger sister, Stroma, who are left to fend for themselves following their older brother Jack's sudden death two years earlier. Their parents having since divorced, Rowan must care for Stroma and their depressed mother. Rowan continues to find herself lonely and overwhelmed; "It's hard to adjust your eyes to something that's dark where it should be light," she reflects while staring at a negative she is given, which turns out to be a photo of her brother. A chance encounter with Harper, a world traveler who lands in her town, leads her to meeting lively Bee and developing a whole new "family" ("Some families we get without asking, while others we choose. And I chose those two"). The story is delicately written, and mysteries and revelations involving Jack propel it forward. A solid tale of what it takes to grow up and how to ask for help. Ages 14-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(High School) "[Mum and Dad] gave us swimming lessons and cycle helmets and self-defense classes and a balanced diet...And still one of us died." Fifteen-year-old Rowan becomes a surrogate parent for her little sister after older brother Jack's death renders their father absent and their mother nonfunctional-and eventually suicidal-with grief. Valentine's warm, graceful first-person narrative develops the strong bond between the sisters and highlights their vulnerability as Rowan tries diligently to inject normalcy into a near-out-of-control situation. An attention-grabbing opening-in which a stranger in a shop in Rowan's London neighborhood hands her a photographic negative that turns out to be a picture of Jack-sets the stage for ensuing events, both dire and life-affirming. Although the novel's accumulation of revelations sends it veering perilously close to melodrama, readers will stick by Rowan as she builds sustaining new relationships-with Jack's secret girlfriend and with the stranger, an eighteen-year-old American boy with whom Rowan experiences the sweetness of first love. "I told myself that some families we get without asking, while others we choose. And I choose those two." From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Fifteen-year-old Rowan is still adjusting to life following her older brother's death. Her dad is only an occasional presence, and her mother lies in bed all day in a fog of grief, which leaves Rowan to take care of her little sister, Stroma. Rowan's far too busy to mourn, until one day a strange boy hands her a photo negative he says fell out of her bag. With her new friend Bee (who's a bit enigmatic herself), Rowan develops the negative and finds a candid photograph of her brother. The mystery Valentine sets in motion is quickly paced and packed with revelations that, while always plausible, sometimes tread too far into gotcha territory. The main appeal of the book, however, is her beautifully modulated tone; Valentine is the rare young-adult author who does not overuse dialogue. Insightful details abound, particularly concerning Rowan's growing relationship with the boy and the resulting reintroduction to her London home, both elements that mirror Valentine's theme of developing. An ideal book for those dealing with the crushing loneliness that follows a death.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2009 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Rowan lives in a house that has been turned into a mausoleum. Her older brother drowned on vacation, and now her family is drowning in grief. Her parents have split, her mother has retreated into a haze of pills and sleep, and the 15-year-old has become the caregiver for her 6-year-old sister. She numbly moves along this path until the day a boy in a coffee shop hands her a photo negative that he mistakenly thinks fell out of her bag. This simple action sets off a surprising chain reaction of events. She meets Bee, who was in the coffee shop at the time, and learns of a connection between the older girl and her brother. She also discovers some amazing things about the people around her, slowly brings life back to her broken family, and even finds love. Some readers may find this book a little slow to start, but once past the first two chapters, they will be sucked into the puzzle. The short chapters reveal many kind and thoughtful people who are willing to help Rowan, and the dynamics among characters ring true. Give this poignant, rewarding story to teens who need books dealing with grief or who crave romance amid tragedy and hardship.-Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Guardian Review
Jenny Valentine's first novel, Finding Violet Park , was so raw and fresh that a second book seemed bound to disappoint. And yet she has done it again. Broken Soup is one of this year's unmissable reads. It pictures the catastrophic impact of grief on a north London family, a story we pick up more than two years after the death of 16-year-old Jack Clark. Charismatic when alive, Jack has acquired an extra gloss in death. "Even Jack would look bad if you compared him to his dead self," says Rowan, his sister, now 15, through whom we see the Clarks' plight: the mother thrust into paralysing depression; the father withdrawn and absent; and Rowan herself indulging in a protective orgy of coping, not least with six-year-old Stroma, her younger sister. But Valentine doesn't wallow in the gloom. This is no austere "issues" book. There's mystery too. Why has a stranger given Rowan a photographic negative? He said she dropped it; she knows she didn't. Why are two new people in Rowan's life, Harper (a travelling American teenager) and Bee (a new arrival in what would have been Jack's year at school), so friendly? Valentine has the essential storyteller's gift of making you want to read on - and to know more even after the book is finished. The writing moves with an athletic spring. When you think there's going to be one startling simile too many, she swerves away. Psychobabble looms, but is avoided. On the rare occasions where Valentine lapses into cliche, it simply highlights the taut originality of the rest of the text. And just when it seems that we are heading for a disappointingly flabby ending, there's a new twist. On no account should you skip ahead. Much of the success of Broken Soup comes from Valentine's skilful dialogue - ringing with the cadences of now without descending into patois that would date the book instantly. A brisk exchange can move the plot along and tell us all we need to know about everyone's state of mind. Valentine captures the vocal tics of each character, and makes good use of the accidental insight of the very young without being twee. The central metaphor of the book's title comes from the mouth of the six-year-old. Though it's set in a similar time and place to Finding Violet Park , some things are better in Broken Soup . Routine drug use, which in that book seemed at times to be inserted to shock or show off, features here, but isn't flaunted. It simply adds to the realism. And once again the designers have served Valentine well. The vibrant cover matches the young wit and sophistication of the content perfectly. It would not be embarrassing to be seen reading this book, even in Rowan's world. Broken Soup will consolidate Valentine's success. It would be wonderful if, in future work, she moved outside her comfort zone of metropolitan life and the teenage viewpoint. Her portrait of the grown-ups, while shown through the prism of a 15-year-old's understanding, nevertheless implies a compassion for the adult predicament that is lacking in many books for young readers. It would be great to see what more she could do with that - or with a more rural setting - but not because what she does with young Camden is anything less than superb. For all the tears you may shed on the way, Broken Soup is a joy to read. Eleanor Updale's Montmorency novels are published by Scholastic. To order Broken Soup for pounds 5.99 with free UK p&p call Guardian book service on 0870 836 0875 or go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop Caption: article-valentine.1 [Jenny Valentine] doesn't wallow in the gloom. This is no austere "issues" book. There's mystery too. Why has a stranger given [Rowan] a photographic negative? He said she dropped it; she knows she didn't. Why are two new people in Rowan's life, Harper (a travelling American teenager) and Bee (a new arrival in what would have been [Jack Clark]'s year at school), so friendly? Valentine has the essential storyteller's gift of making you want to read on - and to know more even after the book is finished. - Eleanor Updale.
Kirkus Review
Fifteen-year-old Rowanclever, introspective and stressedis holding her grieving, broken family together with elbow grease and well-told lies. Lacking parental support and missing her late brother Jack, Rowan focuses entirely on the day-to-day business of keeping her five-year-old sister Stroma fed, occupied and happy. Into this sad monotony drops Harper, a cute American bearing a photographic negative he insists belongs to Rowan. The photo, developed with help from would-be friend Bee, reveals Jack's face, full of joyous life. The shock of this mysterious gift prompts Rowan to build a makeshift family for herself, first relying on Bee and her father Carl, then befriending and falling for Harper. The narrative takes several dramatic turnsRowan discovers Bee and Jack's romance, and her mother attempts suicidebut Valentine handles each one with a light touch, letting Rowan's warmth and grit, as well as her loneliness and resentment shine through on each page. This is rich, satisfying storytelling, indeed. (Fiction. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
