Book Review - Lock and Key, by Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen's latest book, "Lock and Key," came out last Tuesday, and this librarian definitely ran out to a bookstore to buy it (and scored a signed copy). Our library copies should hit the shelf soon. High school senior Ruby has been living in a "broken home" of sorts -- her mom can barely keep down a job, and often uses drugs -- but she's still getting by. But then one day, her mom leaves and doesn't come back... period. Ruby's doing an alright job living in the house alone, but when the drier breaks, the landlord discovers she's on her own and calls social services. Ruby wants nothing more than to just keep living on her own, believes she doesn't need anyone, when her older sister turns up and takes her in. She hasn't seen Cora, who's ten years older than her, since she went off to college-- in Ruby's mind, effectively deserting the family. Cora's settled down now, with a husband, a dog, and a comfortable life as a lawyer, and Ruby couldn't feel more out of place in her sister's tasteful McMansion. She's not planning on staying there long, though, just waiting for the right time to make her escape and return to her real life. There's only one problem. The night she tries to make a run for it, she gets caught, by her brother-in-law, and the hot next door neighbor, Nate.

"Lock and Key" is another strong outing by Dessen, one that touches on issues of child abuse, family, friendship, and making a clean start. Her fans will enjoy a return to the familiar setting -- all of her books are set in a fictionalized college town in North Carolina -- as well as a brief run-in with a character from one of her previous novels.

Recommended for Dessen fans, teens that like to read realistic fiction with female protagonists.

Four out of Five Stars
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Book Review - Your Own, Sylvia

"Miss Barnes reviews the Printz honor books" continues! This weekend I read Your Own, Sylvia, by Stephanie Hemphill, a non-fiction recipient of the Printz honor this year. Stephanie Hemphill did an amazing job with this book, which is a collection of poems the Hemphill wrote, using Sylvia Plath's own poems as a guideline. The book takes you through Sylvia's tragically short life, with poems told from the viewpoint of Sylvia's mother Aurelia, boyfriends, friends, acquaintances, and her husband Ted Hughes.

For those of you not familiar with Sylvia Plath, she is a famous American poet who rose to fame in the 1950s and 60's with her poems published in all the major magazines. As a college student at Smith College in Massachusetts, she won a prestigious internship at Mademoiselle magazine. After college, she moved to Great Britain, studying at Cambridge and later settling with her husband Ted Hughes and two young children, in rural England. Sylvia suffered from depression and was an amazingly gifted writer and poet, as well as a terribly complicated person. She authored the book The Bell Jar, which is based on her experience with depression in college. Many factors contributed to her suicide when she was only thirty-one, but she will forever be remembered as a beautiful, gifted woman, who died before her time.

This book reminded me of my own experience reading The Bell Jar, in college, and the one summer I spent on Cape Cod, reading her journals. I had forgotten how vivacious and intense Sylvia was in high school and college, an overachiever that many people will identify with. Sylvia was talked about around campus, admired by guys and girls alike. Many, many men were drawn to her and found themselves falling in love with her. But as pretty and likeable as she was, Sylvia had issues that she had been dealing with since she was a young girl, when her father passed away. She explored these issues in her confessional poetry, and found herself surrounded by the literati, including Ted Hughes, who became one of England's preeminent poets.

Join the millions of women that have found their curiosity's piqued by Sylvia Plath and her genius, by checking out Stephanie Hemphill's Your Own, Sylvia.

* * * * * (five stars)
Recommended for: writers, poets, Sylvia Plath fans, people intrigued by genius, high-schoolers