Common Sense Note
While this book may be too slow for some, it speaks clearly to others, with writing teenagers understand and a story that gets to the heart of adolescence.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Monica Wyatt
Conflicts with parents consume many teenagers, and blaming the parent who stays behind is all too common. Here Richard Peck examines a girl who blames her mother for her father's failings.
From an early age Jessica tries to win her father's love, but unsuccessfully. She constantly makes excuses for him. When he fails to show up at the airport, she says, "Then I understood what he'd done, and it was perfect. Instead of meeting me himself, he'd sent Brooke and Tony so I'd have friends, young ones, right from the start."
Only when faced with undeniable evidence of his indifference--his sale of her grandmother's portrait, his gift of her diamond earrings to his girlfriend, and finally his obvious proposition of her young friend--does Jessica finally allow herself to see the truth about her father.
With that admission she can see the truth about her mother, and at last develop a loving relationship with her. It even turns out that her mother is the author of the romance novels Jessica loves. While this all may seem too neat, it serves to make the point that we can blind ourselves to our own best interests.
Yet Jessica doesn't hate her father: "You can't hate people you've betrayed unless you want to be fourteen forever," she says.
The book requires some emotional maturity and thus may best please older, more experienced readers. It includes discussion of the art world, which intrigues some readers but bores others. For more exciting fare from Richard Peck, try Are You in the House Alone?. Katherine Paterson's The Great Gilly Hopkins has a similar theme, but is more accessible to younger readers.
From The Book
I didn't know if it was a divorce. There'd been lawyers, but if she had any legal rights, I didn't want to hear them. After the day I'd let Dad in to take away the painting and the other things, I pulled farther back from her. I knew I'd betrayed her, but it was her fault.
Plot Summary:
Jessica worships her father and blames her mother for their separation. She punishes her mom by sulking in her room until she is sent to Mexico to spend Christmas with her dad. There she learns the truth about her selfish father and realizes that she loves her mother after all. Highly realistic adolescent confusion.
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Sexual ContentOne scene that implies sex between adults. |
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Social BehaviorThe main character deliberately ignores, deceives, and insults her mother, but later learns to love her. |
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