Title: Hope in Patience
Author: Beth Fehlbaum
Publisher: WestSide Books
Copyright: 2010
ISBN: 9781934813416
Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 10-12
Genre: Issues--Abuse
Reader’s Annotation: Fifteen-year-old Ashley works hard at recovering from years of sexual abuse with the help of her family, therapist, and an eclectic group of friends in the small town of Patience, Texas.
Plot Summary
Ashley Nicole Asher is 15 and recovering from the sexual abuse she suffered for years at the hands of her stepfather. Now living with her father, stepmom, and stepbrother in the tiny town of Patience, Texas, Ashley is starting a new school year and a new season of cross-country. Ashley encounters many obstacles on her road to recovery that propel the episodic plot. Her abusive stepfather is let off without jail time. The school principal shakes her violently in his office. She gets lost in the woods after a haunted house triggers a flashback. A classmate overhears Ashley’s friends talking about her past and confronts her cruelly. Throughout the novel, Ashley meets with her therapist, who forces her to acknowledge feelings she would rather deal with in other ways—hiding and self-harm. Ashley develops relationships with schoolmates, including the new girl, a lesbian whose sexuality is rejected by her parents, and Joshua, the cute guy from cross-country. She also struggles with her schoolwork, especially assignments on family. A final confrontation with her mother (who denies Ashley’s abuse) threatens to undo all of Ashley’s progress, but her family and friends won’t let that happen.
Critical Evaluation
The literary elements that most drew my critical attention in Hope in Patience are plot and characterization. This book has been much praised for its honesty. While I agree with critics that Ashley’s emotions and reactions feel authentic, many of her experiences do not. A couple of dramatic incidents, in particular, are unrealistic and seem manufactured to inject conflict into an already angst-ridden story. In one, Ashley is sent to the principal's office for swearing in the hall, and in the course of the brief meeting he violently shakes her. In another, Ashley's history teacher humiliates a student for yawning, including herding her around the classroom with a yardstick.
Many of the characters, especially the adults, are painted in black and white—the principal, history teacher, stepdad, grandparents, and mother are evil, and the dad and stepmom are angels. The intolerant conservative Christian character is offensive in his cartoonishness, and the tattletale girl has no discernible motive for her obnoxiousness. Ashley’s best friend, who is black, and the new girl, who is a lesbian, are well-drawn, but still seem to have been created to instruct Ashley in the variety of human suffering and the reader in tolerance. The therapist, whom all of the characters seem to love, comes off as creepy, if not mildly abusive. He repeatedly yells at Ashley during their sessions, and sometimes startles her with loud noises he knows she dreads.
Furthermore, the episodic plot fails to coalesce into a coherent narrative. This book is intended to be both the middle title of a trilogy and a stand-alone novel, and the combination is not entirely successful. More backstory is included than is usual for a mid-series book, but it is told in scattered bursts rather than consecutively. Perhaps because it's supposed to be followed by a third book, the ending of Hope in Patience comes more suddenly and anticlimactically than is ideal for a stand-alone novel.
Curriculum Ties: Health--sexual abuse, self-harm
Booktalking Ideas: Read pages 10-13, Ashley's description of a typical night spent hiding in her closet and a typical morning in her mother's house.
Challenge Issues: Disturbing descriptions of sexual abuse and self-harm; language; homosexuality
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I will also include reviews from School Library Journal (a positive review that explains the benefits to readers of the book's sometimes brutal honesty) and Library Media Connection (a negative review that nevertheless acknowledges the book's usefulness).
About the Author
I was inspired to write this story by my own recovery from childhood sexual abuse. In the process of working through my own grief, disbelief, and anger, I was writing poems and short stories, and sharing them with my (long-suffering) therapist. One day, he suggested that I try writing a novel.
I was born in Dallas, Texas, and I have one brother, who is a police sergeant. My husband and I were high school sweethearts, and we married young. We have three daughters who are amazing and brilliant. My oldest is getting her doctorate in Sociology; my middle daughter is getting her MFA in Publishing and Creative Writing, and my youngest child is studying to be a neonatal nurse.
When my youngest daughter started Kindergarten, I went to college to be a teacher. ... I have a B.A. in English, minor Secondary Education, from the University of Texas at Arlington, and an M.Ed. in Elementary Education, specializing in Reading, from Texas A & M -- Commerce. I still teach. I taught middle schoolers for the first part of my career, and now I teach 5th grade students in a bilingual education program in East Texas. I am fortunate to love both my jobs, as teacher and author!
http://www.bethfehlbaumya.com/bio.htm
Why is this title included?
In spite of its flaws, Hope in Patience is an important addition to the collection because of its forthright treatment of sexual abuse and the long, hard road of recovery. It is also a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.
Author: Beth Fehlbaum
Publisher: WestSide Books
Copyright: 2010
ISBN: 9781934813416
Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 10-12
Genre: Issues--Abuse
Reader’s Annotation: Fifteen-year-old Ashley works hard at recovering from years of sexual abuse with the help of her family, therapist, and an eclectic group of friends in the small town of Patience, Texas.
Plot Summary
Ashley Nicole Asher is 15 and recovering from the sexual abuse she suffered for years at the hands of her stepfather. Now living with her father, stepmom, and stepbrother in the tiny town of Patience, Texas, Ashley is starting a new school year and a new season of cross-country. Ashley encounters many obstacles on her road to recovery that propel the episodic plot. Her abusive stepfather is let off without jail time. The school principal shakes her violently in his office. She gets lost in the woods after a haunted house triggers a flashback. A classmate overhears Ashley’s friends talking about her past and confronts her cruelly. Throughout the novel, Ashley meets with her therapist, who forces her to acknowledge feelings she would rather deal with in other ways—hiding and self-harm. Ashley develops relationships with schoolmates, including the new girl, a lesbian whose sexuality is rejected by her parents, and Joshua, the cute guy from cross-country. She also struggles with her schoolwork, especially assignments on family. A final confrontation with her mother (who denies Ashley’s abuse) threatens to undo all of Ashley’s progress, but her family and friends won’t let that happen.
Critical Evaluation
The literary elements that most drew my critical attention in Hope in Patience are plot and characterization. This book has been much praised for its honesty. While I agree with critics that Ashley’s emotions and reactions feel authentic, many of her experiences do not. A couple of dramatic incidents, in particular, are unrealistic and seem manufactured to inject conflict into an already angst-ridden story. In one, Ashley is sent to the principal's office for swearing in the hall, and in the course of the brief meeting he violently shakes her. In another, Ashley's history teacher humiliates a student for yawning, including herding her around the classroom with a yardstick.
Many of the characters, especially the adults, are painted in black and white—the principal, history teacher, stepdad, grandparents, and mother are evil, and the dad and stepmom are angels. The intolerant conservative Christian character is offensive in his cartoonishness, and the tattletale girl has no discernible motive for her obnoxiousness. Ashley’s best friend, who is black, and the new girl, who is a lesbian, are well-drawn, but still seem to have been created to instruct Ashley in the variety of human suffering and the reader in tolerance. The therapist, whom all of the characters seem to love, comes off as creepy, if not mildly abusive. He repeatedly yells at Ashley during their sessions, and sometimes startles her with loud noises he knows she dreads.
Furthermore, the episodic plot fails to coalesce into a coherent narrative. This book is intended to be both the middle title of a trilogy and a stand-alone novel, and the combination is not entirely successful. More backstory is included than is usual for a mid-series book, but it is told in scattered bursts rather than consecutively. Perhaps because it's supposed to be followed by a third book, the ending of Hope in Patience comes more suddenly and anticlimactically than is ideal for a stand-alone novel.
Curriculum Ties: Health--sexual abuse, self-harm
Booktalking Ideas: Read pages 10-13, Ashley's description of a typical night spent hiding in her closet and a typical morning in her mother's house.
Challenge Issues: Disturbing descriptions of sexual abuse and self-harm; language; homosexuality
In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I will also include reviews from School Library Journal (a positive review that explains the benefits to readers of the book's sometimes brutal honesty) and Library Media Connection (a negative review that nevertheless acknowledges the book's usefulness).
About the Author
I was inspired to write this story by my own recovery from childhood sexual abuse. In the process of working through my own grief, disbelief, and anger, I was writing poems and short stories, and sharing them with my (long-suffering) therapist. One day, he suggested that I try writing a novel.
I was born in Dallas, Texas, and I have one brother, who is a police sergeant. My husband and I were high school sweethearts, and we married young. We have three daughters who are amazing and brilliant. My oldest is getting her doctorate in Sociology; my middle daughter is getting her MFA in Publishing and Creative Writing, and my youngest child is studying to be a neonatal nurse.
When my youngest daughter started Kindergarten, I went to college to be a teacher. ... I have a B.A. in English, minor Secondary Education, from the University of Texas at Arlington, and an M.Ed. in Elementary Education, specializing in Reading, from Texas A & M -- Commerce. I still teach. I taught middle schoolers for the first part of my career, and now I teach 5th grade students in a bilingual education program in East Texas. I am fortunate to love both my jobs, as teacher and author!
http://www.bethfehlbaumya.com/bio.htm
Why is this title included?
In spite of its flaws, Hope in Patience is an important addition to the collection because of its forthright treatment of sexual abuse and the long, hard road of recovery. It is also a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.