Well the James Cook Diversity Award committee met last week - but we didn't decide anything yet :-) We discussed about forty books and eliminated about half of them. There are a few more that we need to read and we will be voting in another month or so. There seemed to be about 6 favorites. One of them is
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley (Little, Brown, 2009). It is the story of a girl with a disfiguring "port wine" birthmark over one side of her face. She has had many procedures to try to remove it but nothing has worked. As a child she was teased about it. As a teen she covers it with layers of makeup. Her self confidence is low - but this stems more from her home life than her face. Terra's father is a mean bully. While he doesn't physically hit anyone, his constant put downs makes family life hell. Her two older brothers have moved out and stay far away. Her lovely, demoralized mother eats to survive and has become obese. On the trip home from one more attempt to remove the birthmark, Terra and her mother literally run into Jacob, a gorgeous Goth, who is traveling with his mother and little brother. They develop a friendship. For Terra and Jacob a hot one!
There is a lot in this book. The theme of maps is throughout. Terra's father is a cartographer. Jacob introduces Terra to geocaching - a treasuring hunting game using a GPS. Terra is an artist whose medium is collages. There is travel: part of book is a trip to China to visit Terra's brother. Very well written. I would recommend this book to high school girls who like Sarah Dessen. Hook? I would show them the cover and simply say, "If you like Sarah Dessen, you will love this."
10 comments:
I think the cover is interesting, but more because it doesn't show the side of her face with the port-wine stain. Did the publishers think that showing it would be a turn-off to (potential) readers?
This book hits home for me, my 15-month has a small port-wine stain on her chin. We went to a dermatologist when she turned 1 and the doctor suggested that maybe before she starts school they could remove it. She didn't think it would be a problem and there would be little to no scarring. My daughter has a very supportive home life, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to not have support and have to deal with that especially if it is on half your face.
This sounds like a very interesting book. I think more girls would relate to this than what we would typically think. All teenage girls worry about how they look but maybe this would make them thankful to be the way they are.
This books sounds like it touches on many topics that would appeal to young girls. I will have to put it on my list to read this summer.
This looks like a great book in the vein of the Skin I'm In. I will definitely look for this. What else has she written?
Oh this sounds like such a great book. I really like the map theme and geocaching is such a neat activity. yet another for my ever expanding list!
What a fascinating concept for a book. Yes, what teen hasn't been concerned about their appearance? Would most teens know what a port-wine stain is?
Ha! Great hook and I agree. That would have tons of girls lined up to read it in about five seconds flat. =)
I also think the cover is interesting. I think not liking the way you look is part of being a teenager, so I don't see how students can't relate to Terra on some level. I will definitely be adding this one to my list!
Vanessa - I wondered that too. Terra typically wore her hair so that it covered part of her face as is portrayed in the picture.
Post a Comment