Author: Kevin Henkes
Publisher: Harper Collins
Audio: Simply Audio
Rating: WORTHY!
Read beautifully by Blair Brown
If I'd known this was a Newberry medal winner I would never have picked it up, but since I did, I actually found that I enjoyed this in spite of its Newberry-ness. Sorry I have to go vomit, I used the bad word twice....
Ok, I'm all better now. The novel is a coming-of-age story (of course it is - Newberry [gag] doesn't give medals to any other kind of story) about Martha Boyle who belatedly realizes that she could have had a good friend in Olive Barstow. Belatedly, because Olive was run down by a car while she was out biking. The only way Martha discovers all this is from a list which Olive had been creating which comes into Martha's possession. It's a doomed list of things which Olive wanted to do before she died.
So this is why I loathe and detest medal-winning books: one requirement for medal-ization is that a kid dies. A second requirement is that the dead kid is always noble and selfless. A third - maybe not a requirement, but certainly a plus, is that the kids all have names which no thinking parent would ever inflict upon their child. Seriously, Martha and Olive - in 2003?
That aside, I did like this book. I liked Martha's voice, and that she called her grandmother Godby (or Godbee - it's impossible to tell in an audio book) out of a misunderstanding when she was younger. And while we're on the audio topic - sorry this is a Newberry >gack!< book, I should say: whilst we're on the audio topic, I have to nobly and selflessly say that this is a great example of an older person reading a young novel and doing a fine job of it. Blair Brown was excellent. See? It can be done right!
That aside, what the ∫∪⊂∑ was with the screeching violin music? Was that in the original novel? I DON'T FRIGGING THINK SO! Can we dispense with the abysmal musical interludes in audio books in the name of all that's holy? At best they're an irritation and utterly irrelevant. Good god what is wrong with these people?
Ok, I'm all better now. So Martha tries to figure out how she feels about the non-existent friendship, but the burgeoning relationship between herself and Olive. In process of running this through her CPU, she becomes attracted to Jimmy Manning who, it turns out, is just using her to win a bet - the inevitable crushing let-down/grown-up understanding that is the penultimate requisite of a medal winner. But - and this is the final requirement for a real medal candidate - Martha eventually puts all these issues and disasters and concerns and discoveries in perspective and comes out of this a better and more mature person.
So yes, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I recommend it. And it's very short (3 disks on audio)! So even if you dislike it, you haven't lost much. It has to be short to win a Newberry »ack!« medal - the the judging panel's attention span really doesn't....
Thanks for all the fish.
