Review of The Girl in the White Van by April Henry

Henry, April.  The Girl in the White Van.  Henry Holt, 2020.

Sophomore Savannah Taylor has been dragged from city to city by her mom, always in search of  her next boyfriend.  Since she knows they will only move again, Savannah has learned never to get too comfortable in one place.  Currently, they are living with Tim, an auto mechanic, who is macho and very controlling.

 

In her spare time, Savannah has achieved her orange belt in kung fu and is reading a book about Bruce Lee, whom she admires.  Gossip has been going around school about girls being followed by a driver in a beat-up car and a girl from a nearby town who has been missing for nearly a year.

 

One night after kung fu class, Savannah is attacked and kidnapped.  When she awakes, she tries unsuccessfully to escape by falling out of the white van her kidnapper is driving.  Upon falling, she breaks her wrist and is recaptured.  She is taken to an old junk yard and pushed into an RV, where she finds Jenny, whom she heard was missing.  Jenny tells Savannah that “Sir”, their kidnapper, has certain rules they must follow if they want to remain alive.

 

Savannah is determined to keep herself and Jenny alive, no matter what.  She teaches Jenny how to be resourceful and fight back.  She knows they must use all their strength and cunning if they are going to outsmart Sir and escape from the RV.

 

The Girl in the White Van is the latest in a string of breathtaking thrillers written by April Henry.  Although the plot is simple, the action is nonstop and heart-stopping.  As a student of various martial arts, Ms. Henry has incorporated her extensive knowledge into this book, as well as information about the late Bruce Lee.  

 

As usual, the author has given us a strong female protagonist.  Savannah has learned to be tough, both mentally and physically, because she has lived in many different places.  Although she is claustrophobic, she is able to overcome the fear of being in a small RV in order to empower and help Jenny, who is quite timid and traumatized when they first meet.  

 

Each chapter begins with a quote by Bruce Lee, who was quite the philosopher!  Besides Savannah and Jenny, there are other narrators--the girls’ mothers, Sir, and others to keep readers abreast of is happening with the search for the girls while they are locked inside the trailer.

 

The Girl is the White Van is a real page-turner.  Hand it to fans of the author and readers who enjoy stories about survival and adventure.  I highly recommend it for middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it five out of five fleur de lis!

 

Thank you to Edelweiss and Dutton for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Review of Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose

         Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose, edited by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil.  Sourcebooks/Fire, 2013.

“Tonight I got arrested.”  This is the first sentence of journals kept by Mary Rose, a young teenage girl who is fighting addiction to drugs and alcohol.  She has a tragic home life; her father left Mary Rose and her mother when she was very young.  Her mother always seems to choose boyfriends over Mary Rose and her sister.  Her mother’s boyfriends are both physically and mentally abusive.   By the age of fifteen, Mary Rose is an addict, has experienced sex, and has been gang-raped.  Her loneliness leads to boredom, bad hygiene, drugs, and alcohol.

Mary Rose longs for friendship, love, and acceptance, but she continuously chooses the wrong kind of people to befriend.  She is in and out of rehab clinics and hospitals; she reveals later in her journals that she has cystic fibrosis.  Many of the children she has known through in hospitals have died; the life expectancy of CF patients is only thirty-two years of age, and that is for someone who has taken care of himself.

So Mary Rose lives her life on the edge, trying to experience everything she can as fast as possible because she doesn’t know how long she will be around.   She writes to Nobody since no one will ever read what she has written, or so she believes.

Mary Rose’s journals were found after her death in her bedroom closet by her friend and given to the editors.  They actually did no editing per se, only cut out some of the entries.  Because Mary Rose died as a minor,  her mom had to go to court to have her father removed from Mary Rose’s estate; he would not give permission for the diary entries to be published.  After he left Mary Rose and her mother, he did not pay one penny in child support, and the editors did not think he should benefit from any of the proceeds of the book.

Mary Rose’s writing takes place over a course of about three years and is brutally honest; even though she had to drop out of school in second grade due to her illness, she was a brilliant writer.  In her diary, she talks of despair, guilt, loneliness, and the physical pain of cystic fibrosis.  She dreamed of being an rich actress or a famous writer but knew, in her heart, that she wouldn’t live long enough.  She had seen friends as young as eleven pass away and had looked death in the face several times before she finally succumbed to complications due to CF in 1999.

I recommend this book with caution for high school and public libraries.  It contains profanity, underage drinking, drug abuse, and many sexual situations.  Readers who enjoy books by Ellen Hopkins or read Go Ask Alice will devour this book.  Thank you to Sourcebooks/Fire which allowed me to read and review this book.  I give it three out of five fleur de lis!

Review of Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson

Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson; Roaring Book Press, 2010, c2007.

Carl and Sylvie, nicknamed “Titch”, are next-door neighbors and have grown up together. They have been friends since they were both very young, and Sylvie assumes that someday they will get married. They have been making up stories about “Glassworld”, and Sylvie thinks that they will eventually become famous author-illustrators. Now they are high school freshmen, and Carl has transferred to a prestigious boys’ school, and both are having adjustment problems. Sylvie is bothered because Carl is constantly talking about his pal, Paul, a soccer star at his school. Miranda, voluptuous and “boy-crazy”, has become Sylvie’s new friend, and Carl doesn’t care for her. Sylvie cannot decide why Carl has not kissed her yet. Doesn’t he love her they way she loves him? When Carl tells Sylvie that the reason he hasn’t kissed her is that he is gay, she is totally taken by surprise, but she isn’t mad. However, when Carl reveals his true feelings to Paul when trying to kiss him, Paul retaliates until Sylvie and Miranda come to his rescue!

This is a story of first love and of love scorned. Sylvie, quite likable, is portrayed as a tiny girl, hence the “Titch” nickname; her love for Carl is pure and innocent. She is the absolute opposite of Miranda, who comes across as very worldly and pushy, but turns out to be a true friend to both Sylvie and Carl. Carl, on the other hand, is your stereotypical gay guy…not into sports, extremely handsome, neat as a pin, and very artistic. Additionally, Carl’s parents seem to accept his gender issues too easily, writing it off as a phase he is going through. Also stereotypical is Paul, the quintessential jock, clowning around, slapping and hitting his friends, and acting like a “good old boy”. The gender issue is handled well, and the book is not preachy in its approach.

This novel was first published in Great Britain in 2007 by Doubleday. Since this is a British publication, there will be some words and phrases that American teens will not be familiar with. I recommend this book for high school and public libraries.