YA Pick: Blood Family

Blood Family
by Anne Fine
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
2017
291 pages
ISBN: 9781481477734


Blood Family is the gripping tale of a boy who had no chance. Edward's mother is a ghost of a woman who has lost her humanity. Beaten and abused for years, she has lost her will to survive let alone raise a seven year old child. If not for a nosy neighbor, Edward would probably be dead.

Rescued from the home along with his mother, Edward is taken to "safety." The conditions of his childhood home are documented by social workers and police officers. There is nothing to eat and deplorable conditions. Edward has never set foot from the house, never been outside, never talked to anyone before. Everything he knows he has learned from thirty year old VCR tapes of episodes of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."

Edward is grateful to be saved but worried about his mother. She will never be capable of taking care of herself again. Edward is shuttled off to foster homes and never fits in. He realizes his mother's abusive "boyfriend" is really his "blood" father and terrified  that if they share the same DNA, maybe Edward will be evil also. He does not want to become a beast.

After a series of relationships, homes, demons, drugs and failures, he realizes he will be okay.

The chapters are told in first person by a series of narrators: the neighbor who calls the police, the police who respond, social workers, foster parents, teachers and Eddie himself. Readers will get the big picture and not just Eddie's possibly skewed view of things. The book was first released by Doubleday in Great Britain. Blood Family is a tough book about a deplorable subject. It is not a "feel good" book.

Recommended for realistic fiction collections and high schools.

A Novel That Makes a Difference: Shine

Shine
by Lauren Myracle
Amulet, 2011
384 pages

Due May 2011

Passionate, powerful, and poignant, this novel will cause a cacophony in libraries, book stores, blogs, and hopefully, even forward-thinking classrooms. Myracle leaves her girl/chick-lit earlier novels behind her, and steps to the center stage with this complex and grim read.

Shine is a gritty novel that will stick with readers making them uncomfortable and even angry, but it is also a novel that will cause discussion/debate on a number of issues: poverty, ignorance, illegal drug use, alcoholism, hatred, race relations, gay/lesbian/transgender issues, brutality, bullying, and the human capacity to forgive.

Cat Robinson is a sixteen year old girl growing up in the backwoods of rural America where the Internet/I-phones and laptops are non-existent. Cat has to go to the next town by bus to use a computer at the public library. People who live in Black Creek, North Carolina, are for the most part poor and uneducated. Most drop out in high school; in fact, only Cat and two others are going on to their senior year. Many jobs have been lost in the town and people turn to alcohol and meth for relief. Teen boys work peddling meth for the local meth cooker Wally.

It is in these hills that Cat's best friend Patrick is brutally attacked, bludgeoned and left for dead. The sheriff calls it a hate crime since Patrick is known to be gay. Cat knows better; she knows that the sheriff isn't looking for the guilty person. The official report says Patrick was probably hurt by college kids who stopped at the convenience store where he works. Cat goes from a shrinking violet to a determined and strong girl who fights for what's right.

As Cat uncovers clues, readers will be saddened and disgusted by this picture of Americana--a town where dreams are best left not dreamed and the future only looks brighter through the bottom of a bottle or the haze of meth.

This book will be widely read among teens who read authors David Levithan and Alex Sanchez. Shine is a novel that will stand the test of time. It is The Outsiders of the 21st Century.

In the end, the reader is left with a feeling of optimism as the guilty person is found and Patrick turns the corner. Cat and Patrick find it within themselves to forgive and continue to heal.

Highly, highly recommended for high school collections.
Warning: too mature for middle school. Sex, language, violence, gay issues, drugs, mature content.

FTC Required Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this review.