Coming of Age | Book Chatter

Child Wonder
By Roy Jacobsen
(Graywolf Press, Paperback, 9781555975951, September, 27, 2011, 256pp.)

The Short of It:

A touching, coming-of-age story.

The Rest of It:

Finn and his mother live in a small apartment in Oslo, in the early 60s. She works in a shoe shop and does her best to make ends meet. They are comfortable and happy. Finn’s father died long ago in a crane accident but he left a little something behind…a daughter. Linda, age 6 and only a few years younger than Finn, comes to live with them. With another mouth to feed, Finn’s mom takes in a quirky lodger.

I’m not sure what I expected when picking this book up but I wasn’t expecting to be completely charmed by Finn. Finn is a great kid. He’s not the most popular kid but he’s not an outcast either. Living alone with his mother has given him a sense of maturity that you don’t normally see in a child his age, but he still possesses that child like wonder that makes this particular age so special.

Finn’s mother is firm, but wonderful and they watch out for each other quite a bit. When Linda comes to live with them, Finn is not sure what to think. Out of nowhere, this half-sister arrives and he immediately sees that she’s not quite right. But there is no jealously here. Just a fierce need to protect her and Finn does exactly that.

What the lodger provides, is a man’s perspective. Something Finn has never had. Although he resents having to have a lodger, he learns to live with the guy because for one, he has a TV and two, he’s nice company for his mother.

Towards the end of the story, something happens that changes the way they live and once again they are forced to readjust to their new lives. I was a bit sad when I read the ending, but as stricken as the characters are, they accept their situation and continue to grow.

There are many things that I liked about this book. It’s a very simple story and because it’s so simple, you can focus on the characters and they are really wonderfully drawn. I liked that Finn was not a babbling child but a child with a good head upon his shoulders. I liked that his mother was not perfect, but was a really good mom. I also loved the development of Linda, the half-sister.

All in all, reading this book was a pleasant experience and reminded me of what it’s like to be a child in a grown-up world.

Note from Ti: This book comes out September 27, 2011, but since I liked it so much, I decided to review it early.

Source: Sent to me by the publisher.

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Across the Universe
By Beth Revis
(Razorbill, Hardcover, 9781595143976, January 2011, 416pp.)

The Short of It:

Across the Universe has a lot going on in its pages, but teen readers will have a hard time putting it down.

The Rest of It:

Amy, her parents, and a host of others are frozen in a type of extended sleep until they arrive at the new planet. Their trip is expected to take three hundred years. For the duration, the folks on Godspeed, the ship transporting them, are in charge of creating new generations while on board, and preserving the folks that are living as frozen cargo. Except, they aren’t doing a good a job of it because there is a murderer running around unplugging everyone before their time.

As entertaining as this book is, and as fun as teens will find it, it contains almost “too much” information and goes in too many directions. It’s dystopian sci-fi (my favorite part), but it’s also a mystery, a thriller, a love story, a coming of age story, fantasy and an action adventure tale all rolled into one.

The feeling I had while reading it, was that the author wanted it to be many things. I get that. It’s a first novel and I can see why the author would want to guarantee wide appeal. BUT, it was almost as if the author just chose a storyline from a stack of cards and then went with it, but only to a certain point. Then another card was chosen, and so on and so on. An unfortunate situation for this adult reader because I really enjoyed the characters and wanted to know more about them, but once you started to know something of importance…the story would veer off into a different direction.

In the author’s defense, teens do have a very abbreviated attention span and it is geared towards young adults, of which, I am certainly not. So I understand that what I found frustrating, might not even register with a teen. I do want to say that there is quite a bit of sex. If your son or daughter plans to read this, you might want to have a talk with them about it before they start. It’s not overly gratuitous, but they are trying to create new generations and there is a lot of mating going on as the seasons change.

In summary, my favorite part of the story was the whole freezing/planning for the new planet. There is a riveting scene where Amy is frozen for the trip and that scene literally gave me goosebumps. I wish the story had continued along that line, the colonization of the new planet, etc. On the flip side, I could totally see this playing out in movie form. Overall, a good first attempt at a genre I seem to be liking more and more each day.

Source: Borrowed from the library.