A
wesome book reviewer/book evangelist Sharon Levin is here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams (Simon & Schuster, 2010).
Here's Sharon:
"In one moment
it is over:
In one moment
it is gone.
The morning grows
thin, gray
and our lives—
how they were—
have vanished.Our lives have
changed
when I walk
in on Lizzie
my sister
holding a shotgun.
She fingers the trigger.
Looks up.
My sister.
My sister just looks
up at me.
Touching
the trigger
of that gun.
"And so begins Glimpse the impossible to put down novel by Carol Lynch Williams.
"Ever since Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust we have seen an upsurge in ‘verse novels’ and I’ve known friends who will often dismiss a book unread as they say, 'Oh no, I’m not reading another of those.'"If they do that with Glimpse they will miss out on an amazing reading experience made more intense because of the spare text, the white space and the tight, tight verse.
"Hope and Lizzie are sisters who are amazingly close. Their father got killed in a motorcycle accident when they were very young and their mother is full of pain, blame and often, beer.
"Once, when Hope and Lizzie were almost six and seven, their mother returned after working all night and looked at her girls,
Then she said,
It is your job,
Liz,
to take care of your
little sister.
And you, Hope,
Momma said
her finger pointing like
she meant it,
you take care of Lizzie.
You hear me?
"And with that, she places the responsibility for the sisters squarely on each other’s shoulders (and off of hers).
"It works for quite a while. Hope and Lizzie adore each other, they have a neighbor, Miss Freeman, who looks out for them and who says to their mother, 'Ms. Chapman, I love these girls like they was my own.'
"Glimpse moves back and forth between present (with Lizzie in a mental hospital) and past, showing a happier time and the disintegration of that time, even while Hope doesn’t fully realize what is happening, because Lizzie is still doing her job and taking care of/protecting Hope (and wow, I didn’t realize the significance of her name until I wrote that sentence – Lizzie’s goal is han Add a Comment
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By: Melissa Walker,
on 8/25/2010
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: mockingjay, rgz salon, Sharon Levin, Add a tag
Awesome librarian Sharon Levin is here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to reading and YA trends.
Here's Sharon:
"Who says kids aren’t reading? I find myself constantly defending kids and their reading habits to adults who seem to feel that kids aren’t reading at all, distracted by texting, computer games, and really bad movies (really, Jackass 3D?!?!?!?).
"Thirty five years after I was in junior high (go ahead, I’ll wait while you do the math) I am FINALLY cool to teens BECAUSE I read their books (believe me when I was an actual junior high student I was anything BUT cool). I find I can talk to almost any kid because I just ask them what they’re reading and then the conversation goes from there. I do not cut down their tastes (even if they’re reading Twilight, we are all allowed our ‘trash’ reading) and I love to hear how they view various characters and plot.
"We know the stereotype of 8th graders: too cool for words, into fashion, video games, boys or girls and perhaps sports. Excited about a book? Nope, that’s not what we think of. Well, let me tell you about my morning.
"Today, I paid a surprise visit to my daughter’s 8th grade Language Arts class (YES, I asked her permission first, so it wasn’t a surprise to her, just the teacher and her classmates). I had gone to Kepler’s (our local, independent bookstore) to pick up Mockingjay, the final book in Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy that was just released.
"I knocked on the classroom door and when I walked in, I didn’t say a word, I just held up the book and grinned. There was a moment of silence and the room just exploded. The kids who knew the book (about 85% of them) were going 'Woo Hoo! No way!! I want it!!' as I handed the book to their teacher (it was a gift for her) who hugged it and said, 'Mine, all mine.' (Yes, she’ll share, but she’ll definitely be reading it tonight.) The kids who didn’t know it were saying, 'What? What’s happening?' Guaranteed, all those kids will be getting Book 1 today, in order to be in the loop. This is the closest I will ever get to being treated like a rock star (if you ever heard me sing, you'd realize why, even my rabbi wouldn't let me lead a round at my daughter's Bat Mitzvah and I don't blame him a bit). :-)
"Of course, I also handed a copy to my daughter, so she can start reading it during SSR (Sustained Silent Readi