If This is Home

Scarrow, Kristine. If This Is Home. 2017. 184p. ISBN 978-1459736504. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Jayce’s single mother struggles to feed and house her two daughters, working two jobs and still barely getting by. Jayce’s father is a musician in a band on a perpetual tour. In the past, he would visit them infrequently, but never supported them financially. They have not heard any news or visits from him in four years, ever since Joelle’s birth. Now 16, Jayce comes home to find her mother being taken away in an ambulance. She had been sick for months, and the diagnostic is stage 4 cancer. Jayce had already been caring for Joelle while keeping up with her studies. Thankfully Kurt is there to help. Going through a similar process with his own grandmother, Kurt understands what she’s living through. Now it’s up to her to find her father so he will accept responsibility for them before her mother dies.

Dealing with the too-real situation of a teenager about to lose her only parent, Scarrow deftly illustrates the rawness of Jayce’s feelings and foreboding as her life careens towards disaster. Jayce and Kurt’s relationship is more support group than romance though there is a hint that something could eventually blossom. Main and supporting characters are well-defined and feature realistic emotions. The structure of the story ensures that this novel is a page turner. Both the father and the grandmother are unsympathetic in the decisions they made, but are able to redeem themselves. The ending is perfect for the book, leaving everything uncertain but with hope on the horizon. Readers of all stripes, including reluctant readers, will appreciate this story of resilience and healing in the face of a tragedy.

As You Like It

Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. 2014. 120p. 148 mins. Available at 822.34 on the library shelves and as an eBook on Overdrive.

The Duchy is in turmoil after the Frederick has overthrown his older brother and taken his place as Duke. He has removed all of the previous occupant’s friends, except for his daughter, Rosalind. Frederick’s niece is allowed to stay at court since she is best friend with Frederick’s own daughter, Celia. The two of them flee court, however, and find refuge in the Arden forest with Touchstone, the court foul.

Meanwhile, Orlando had fallen in love with Rosalind at first sight back at court, but is treated very poorly by his brother Oliver. He also decides to leave his estate (really his brother’s), and arrives in the Arden forest. Rosalind and Celia have disguised themselves, one as a boy named Ganymede, the other as a poor woman.

Orlando rejoins the overthrown Duke’s entourage in the forest, and he is soon writing poems to Rosalind on the forest’s trees. Rosalind as Ganymede joins Orlando and helps him “act out” his desires for Rosalind with him and counsels him on the proper way to do so. And as the shepherdess Phoebe falls in love with Ganymede, they all find themselves hopelessly lost in a love polygon.

Ganymede decides to resolve this situation by untying all of the intrigues, and soon all main characters are married to their love. An announcement is made that Frederick has renounced the throne and is joining a religious order, and they all return to court.

A light and lively comedy, As You Like It is famous for one of Shakespeare’s most well known speeches, “all the world’s a stage,” and also features the sentence “too much of a good thing.”

Fish Girl

Wiesner, David and Donna Jo Napoli. Fish Girl. 2017. 186p. ISBN 9780544815124. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Fish Girl has gills and a tail instead of legs. Fish Girl can’t talk, but can breathe air. Fish Girl lives in an aquarium by the sea on the boardwalk. Though she has an underwater room with all the furnitures of a regular teenage girl, she can’t leave the building. Working with Neptune, the God of the Sea, her role is to swim around and offer tantalizing hints that she exists to the paying customers, without ever being seen. At the end of each day, she collects the coins tourists have dropped in the water and brings them to Neptune, who tells her a story from the time when mermaids lived in the sea and Neptune himself was powerful.

A chance encounter with a girl the same age as Fish Girl changes all of that. Fish Girl is not supposed to be seen, but she was, and the girl is convinced she saw a mermaid. When she returns the next day, the girls begin playing games, and even make contact on the third floor. Neptune’s return interrupts the moment, but the girl covers for Fish Girl and Neptune is none the wiser. Fish Girl begins to notice details that had escaped her. Neptune is not the powerful God he claims to be, but rather a fisherman who found her in the ocean and brought her back here. He tricks the tourists through machinery.

Fish Girl longs for freedom, but doesn’t know how to leave. Livia, her friend, continues to visit, and every time opens up a little more a window to the world Fish Girl did not know existed. Named Mira by Livia, she exists the aquarium one night and discovers to her surprise that her tail transforms into legs. Soon, she is exploring the entire house and even the boardwalk beyond. But Neptune is not as dupe as he appears, and he closely monitors Fish Girl. When he catches Livia and Mira together, Neptune knows that Livia will tell the authorities, and he schemes to hide Mira forever. Mira has other plans, however, and with the help of her trusted friend Octopus, she will attempt to find her voice before the storming sea reclaims the aquarium.

Beautifully illustrated by three time Caldecott illustrator David Wiesner, Donna Jo Napoli’s story is based in the folklore of the mermaid and demonstrates that sheer will can overcome most obstacles, but that a friend can help take the first step.

And the Trees Crept In

Kurtagich, Dawn. And the Trees Crept In. 2016. 341p. ISBN 978-0-316-29870-4. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

Living in London, Fourteen-year-old Silla and her four-year old sister Nori have just run away from their abusive father, and seeking refuge, they turn to their aunt, Catherine. She lives at La Baume, a manor that has been in their family for generations. Located outside of a small village in England in the middle of Python Woods, the residence is decrepit and old, and Cath used to run an orphanage there.

Nori cannot talk or make a sound, and she was severely injured to the point where her collar bone and her arm are now deformed. Cath is happy to meet them, and welcomes them into her life. Over three years, Silla and Nori grow up but lack for nothing, except companionship. The manor does not have a telephone, nor a television. Electricity is provided by an old generator, which is broken more often than not. Still, it’s a better life than being stuck in a small apartment with a violent man.

Life in the manor becomes strange, however, and it becomes clear to Silla that something strange is taking place. Cath warns them not to go in Python Woods, ever. When Cath tells the story of the Creeper Man, who supposedly dwells in the forest, Silla becomes scared. Cath tells them the Creeper Man will never let them out of the woods. When Cath serves a birthday cake with living earthworms inside, Silla becomes even more scared. Then Cath barricades herself in the attic, and doesn’t come down. Suddenly there are weird sounds throughout the manor, almost as if it is haunted. A strange boy, Gowan, arrives from the woods and offers to help them. Food begins to run out. And all the while, the trees are physically getting closer to La Baume as the house itself appears to be slowly sinking in the earth. And Nora. Poor Nora, she should have a normal childhood. Instead, she is hungry all the time, and she is the only one who can see that the Creeper Man is in fact already in the manor. Silla must discover the source of the Creeper Man’s power before Nora and her succumb to the threat represented by the trees creeping ever closer …

The horrific atmosphere of La Baume builds slowly, but as details are revealed the terrifying nature of what the girls face is revealed. Fans of horror will definitively want to get their hands on this scary book!