Author: Frances O'Roark Dowell
Publisher: Atheneum
Copyright: 2011
ISBN: 9781416995852
Reading Level/Interest Age: Grades 6-10
Genre: Contemporary--Coming-of-Age
Reader’s Annotation: Janie used to love life on the farm, but now that she's in high school it suddenly doesn't seem so cool.
Plot Summary
It was Janie’s idea to move to a farm in the first place. She used to love everything about it—and still does love the goats she milks and her mom’s newfound cooking prowess. But now that Janie’s in high school, the farm is suddenly social kryptonite. She’s had a couple of unfortunate incidents—hay in her hair, goat poop on her shoe—that have earned her the nickname “Skunk Girl” and caused her to shun the cafeteria. In the library, where she goes to hide during lunch, Janie meets Verbena, who is as odd as her name, and the two strike up a tentative friendship. Meanwhile, Janie and her longtime best friend, Sarah, seem to be drifting apart. Since the first day of school they’ve been chatting with cute junior Jeremy Fitch about joining the Jam Band. One day Jeremy asks his friend Monster to make the girls a mix tape. Monster tries to teach Sarah to play bass, but it turns out that Janie is the one with an aptitude for the instrument. Janie is hurt when Sarah quickly loses interest in her new hobby. Soon Monster and Janie are falling for each other, and she and Sarah are on the trail of an exciting story from local history. Janie is finally starting to feel more comfortable at school when her mom decides to ruin her social life forever by throwing a big embarrassing hootenanny on the farm.
Critical Evaluation
This is a light, funny read. Though Janie’s problems feel very real to her, in comparison with the problems of the teens from the “Issues” titles they don’t even register. Dowell refrains from creating the kind of false conflict so typical of high school stories. Though Janie hurts Monster’s feelings early on by accepting a ride from Jeremy when she was supposed to be riding with him, Monster doesn’t respond with jealousy or anger, and she quickly recognizes her mistake. Likewise, though Sarah comes down a few notches in Janie’s estimation in the course of the book, this doesn’t erase their years-long friendship. The ending feels a little too easy (and comes much too soon), but this book nevertheless provides a valuable, gentle lesson on perspective—Janie learns that all she needs to do to get over her isolation embarrassment is be a little bit brave.
Janie’s is one of the best teenage voices I’ve encountered. She actually sounds like what she’s supposed to be—a smart but typical fourteen-year-old—and she’s very funny to boot. Take this ingenious aside, for instance: “We were sitting at the dinner table, eating a Stouffer’s frozen lasagna that hadn’t quite gotten heated all the way through (‘Think of it as lasagna sorbet,’ my mother suggested, and I was so young and enthusiastic at the time that I actually tried to think of it that way)…” A colorful cast of characters, from Monster’s redneck grandma to Sarah’s wild-child big sister’s biker boyfriend with a heart of gold, ensures that each of the several subplots is entertaining.
Curriculum Ties: N/A
Booktalking Ideas: Read Chapter 2, "A Brief History of How I Ruined My Own Life"
Challenge Issues: N/A
About the Author
Frances O’Roark Dowell is the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Dovey Coe, which won the Edgar Award, Where I’d Like to Be, the bestselling The Secret Language of Girls, and its sequel The Kind of Friends We Used to Be, Chicken Boy, Shooting the Moon, which was awarded the Christopher Medal, the Phineas L. MacGuire series, and most recently Falling In and the teen novel Ten Miles Past Normal. She lives with her husband and two sons in Durham, North Carolina.
Some Facts About Me
I was born May 30, 1964, in Berlin, Germany. My dad was in the U.S. Army at the time, and I was born on a military post, so I’ve always been an American citizen.
The places I have lived in my life:
Berlin, Germany
Charlottesville, Virginia (two times)
Springfield, Virginia (two times)
Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas
Bad Kreuznach, Germany
Killeen, Texas
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Amherst, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Durham, North Carolina (two times)
Boone, North Carolina
Elizabethton, Tennessee
Liberty, North Carolina
Carrboro, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
(I currently live in Durham, North Carolina)
My Family
I am married and have two sons. I have a dog named Travis, no cats. I have two brothers, one older and one younger, four nieces and one nephew.
http://francesdowell.com/biography/
Why is this title included?
I read about this book in an NPR article that identified five recent YA releases with crossover appeal for adults (http://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/137456199/hooray-for-ya-teen-novels-for-readers-of-all-ages). It's a nice counterbalance to the heavy "Issues" titles--a good choice for teens looking for a happy book for a change. Though it's at the younger end of our age range, it's entertaining enough for older readers, too. I thoroughly enjoyed it.