Violets Are Blue by Barbara Dee

 

One morning in February, 11-year-old Ren wakes up and discovers her dad has left the house and she doesn't hear from him until he lands in NYC, assuming Ren's mom has explained that they were getting divorced. Ren's mom Kelly, an ER nurse, doesn't really want to talk about the divorce, and escapes accepting it by sleeping a lot. Ren copes with these changes in her life watching online extreme makeup videos, especially those of Cat FX, an expert in special effects makeup. 

It turns out Ren's father has met someone who lives in Brooklyn and they are planning to get married in the summer. He invites Ren out for a visit and as much as she doesn't want to like Vanessa, she does. Vanessa is also pregnant, and somewhat into makeup because of her upcoming wedding. and the two have fun shopping for different kinds of cosmetics.

That summer, attending her father's summer wedding (and doing Vanessa's makeup for it), Ren's mom decides they need to move and start over, and since she is going to be attending a new school, Ren decides she want's to be called Wren from now on. At school, she immediately makes a friend named Poppy, who is so impressed with Wren's makeup skill, she talks her into trying out to do the makeup for the school play Wicked. Poppy was hoping for the part of Elphaba, but it goes to Avery, a not very friendly mean girl. Avery has a crush on a boy named Kai, but it seems that Kai is more attracted to Wren. 

Meanwhile, Kelly is sleeping more and more, and blaming it on her long days in the ER and the aching back and knees that come with job. Perhaps that's why she is so short tempered with Wren. Then there are all the pain pills in the medicine cabinet, and the lock Kelly has put on her bedroom door, keeping it locked at all time so Wren can't go in. Wren thinks there might be something wrong with her mom, but doesn't know what. Luckily, Kelly has made a friend in the ER named Krystal, and it starts to become clear that something is indeed wrong when Krystal begins checking up on her and Wren. It all comes to a head when Kelly doesn't show up for opening night of Wicked. All of this leads up to a crisis which Wren is way too young to handle by herself, but thankfully has Krystal and her dad's help.

This is another tough topic book by Barbara Dee who tackled sexual harassment in Maybe He Just Likes You and mental illness in My Life in the Fish Tank. Parents who divorce is also tough enough topic, as is moving to another town and school and starting over, but here Dee takes things one step further and explores the reasons for the broken trust between Wren and her mother, a trust that may never be healed completely. 

I have to confess that at first Wren's extreme makeup interest didn't appeal much to me, but when I thought why, I realized that the extreme makeup was a great metaphor for the secrets Wren and her mother hide from each other throughout the book. Makeup, after all, is used to hide flaws and make us look better than we might without it, in a sense presenting a false face to the world. Wren's having to hide her feelings about her dad and his new life forces her into being secretive about what happens on her visits to Brooklyn (and there are many) and the cosmetics Vanessa sends her, hiding them from Kelly. Meanwhile, Kelly hiding a host of her own problems behind a locked door which is just so telling. 

On a positive note, it was very nice to see a stepmom getting along so well with her husband's daughter from a previous marriage, and Wren acceptance of her and the twin babies she gives birth to is equally good to see. You don't often see that in middle grade novels. Vanessa is so open and accepting of Wren and Wren really needs that.  

Violets are Blue is an emotionally charged novel, and one that I highly recommend. You can also find a useful Reading Group Guide courtesy of the publisher Aladdin/Simon & Schuster HERE

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

This book was an ARC gratefully received from Casey Blackwell at Media Masters Publicity

Be sure to check out the other Marvelous Middle Grade Monday offerings, 

now being carried on by Greg at Always in the Middle

Train I Ride by Paul Mosier

Rydr, 12 but very close to 13, has been living in Palm Springs, California with her not-terribly-warm grandmother because her drug addicted mother had already died of an overdose and she doesn’t know who her father is. But now, Grandma can’t take care of Rydr anymore, and so, she is being sent by train to live with a great uncle in Chicago whom she has never met. 

The trip from LA to Chicago is supposed to take 3 days, but it doesn’t take long for it to fall behind schedule, the longer for Rydr to get to know the wonderful assortment of eccentric characters. She will be accompanied by Dorothea, a “stickler for the rule” Amtrak employee, who is required to accompany minors like Rydr, but not take care of them.   

Because she has no money, it becomes incumbent on Rydr to figure out ways of getting food to eat. Day one finds her meeting Carlos, an elderly poet and crossword puzzle fan who shares his puzzles and his donut holes with her. Carlos rides the train in order to write his poetry.

Making her way down to the snack bar, Rydr meets Neal, the in-the-closet gay counter person who quickly figures out that she has no money and is very hungry, and who simply looks the other way when she pockets food to eat. And who genuinely looks forward to her visits to the snack bar, even though she constantly pretends she can’t remember his name and also tells him fabrications about her family life while secretly wishing she had a dad names Neal.

Among the Boy Scout troop traveling on the train are a group who invite Rydr to play an illegal game of Blackjack with them that night. Luckily, she mentions it to Neal, who gives her some important pointers on how to play. Unluckily, Dorothea makes Rydr give back all her winnings.

One of the illegal Boy Scout gamblers, nicknamed Tenderchunks by the boys who made him eat dog food, finds himself attracted to Rydr, and it seems the feeling is mutual. Like Rydr, Tenderchunks has always felt like a misfit and the two hit is off, if only for a short while. Compassionate Tenderchunks also has a bit of the poet in him, and before getting off the train, he gives Rydr his well read (and it turns out, valuable) copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, a anguished poetic protest to societal conformity.

Mixed in among Rydr’s adventures and encounters on the train, are flashbacks to her life with her mother, her grandmother and her therapist from Palm Springs, Dr. Lola. Rydr may have boarded the train with very little physical baggage, but she makes up for it with all her emotional baggage. And who could blame her for some acting out. Yet, Rydr has met, and emotionally formed a family with the people she has come to know on the train, and they, in turn, seem to see a young girl struggling with the rotten hand life has dealt her and are more than willing to lend their support.

This is a debut novel for Paul Mosier, and this coming of age story captures not just the turmoil of being a kid, but the particularly heartbreaking life so many are subject to nowadays, with elderly, tired and emotionally distant grandparents and parents with drug problems and overdosing. But as Mosier demonstrates with Rydr, kids can be resilient and sometimes, they can move forward in their lives. The novel may begin on an uncertain note, but as Rydr begins to discover who and what she is, it ends on a decidedly hopeful note. 

Ryder is of course not our protagonists real name. Her train ID identifies her as an accompanied minor, reading Rider + Last Name. But, the pseudonym seems to allow Rydr to freedom she needs to find herself.  

Train I Ride is an emotional, edgy coming of age journey, and although it is recommended for readers age 8+, I would hesitate giving this book to any readers under 10. There are some tough emotionally demanding scenes in it that may require more maturity than 8 or 9 year olds tend to have. 

I would pair Train I Ride with Kate Messner’s The Seventh Wish, even though that is a fantasy. Both are spot on in dealing with the impact a family member's drug addiction can have on a tween girl struggling to come to terms with it.

This book is recommended for readers age 10+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL

The Seventh Wish by Kate Messner

Twelve-year-old Charlie (Charlotte) Brennan loves Irish step dancing, and for Christmas, her parents had given her a $300. promise towards a dress in which to compete at a Feis or Irish dancing competition.  Charlie and her friend Dasha both are hoping to move up to advance in the next Feis. Charlie decides to do some ice fishing with her friend Drew and his Nana, Mrs. McNeil, to earn some extra dress money by selling the fish she catches.

The only problem is that Charlie is actually afraid of the ice and decides not to go too far out her first day fishing.  Her first fish is a little small, but it tells Charlie she can have a wish if she releases it back into the water.  Not taking it seriously, she  wishes that Roberto Sullivan will like her, but even though it is Robert O'Sullivan who is suddenly infatuated with her, Charlie goes back for more from the wish-granting fish.  She wishes that she would not be afraid of the ice, and sure enough, her fear vanishes and Charlie is able to catch a fair amount of perch and her dress money steadily grows.

Soon, more wishes follow: friend Drew makes the basketball team, to his father's delight and his chagrin, friend Dasha passes her ESL test but discovers she is in over her head in classes where the English words just whiz by her; and Charlie's mom gets a new, better job, but it means that she can't drive Charlie and Dasha to their next Feis.  But when Charlie wishes her beloved older sister home from college so she can drive them to the Feis, no one is prepared for the phone call from the Student Health Center that Abby is quite sick and needs to be picked up.  Charlie not only misses her Feis, but she begins to realize that she needs to be careful about how she phrases her wishes.

Recovered, Abby returns to school, but not for long.  Another phone call from the Student Health Center brings the truth about Abby - she is addicted to heroin and needs help.  Charlie's life soon becomes one of hiding the truth from her friends because she must go to visit her sister in rehab every Sunday instead of working on a group science fair project.  But more importantly is Charlie's struggle to understand how her smart, funny, athletic sister could turn into a liar and a heroin addict even before her first year of college is over.  Abby just doesn't fit the picture of the drug addicts she saw in the D.A.R.E video at school, and who even signed the pledge not to do drugs.  But there is support for Charlie while her sister is in rehab in the form of Mrs. McNeil and even the 8th grade, prizewinner Irish dancer Leah, both of whom have dealt with a family member's alcohol addiction, and their relapses.

This is a very readable novel.  I was pulled in from page one and really couldn't put it down until I finished, even though I already knew what the novel is about.  I thought Kate Messner created a main character who is very nicely fully realized and relatable, in a setting that is also believable - January in upstate New York is mighty cold, just as it is in the novel. And, despite the use of magical realism, in this novel, it is a very realistic story.

I liked how Messner introduces the reader to Charlie's life, depicting it as just ordinary but so wonderfully middle class and middle grade - dancing, friends, crushes, school projects - and how she decides to work for a dress nicer than what $300. would buy because Irish dancing is that important to her.  And I thought Messner did a spot on job showing readers that when Abby's addiction becomes part of the Brennan family's life, everything suddenly centers on her and her needs, and everyone else's needs, including Charlie's, simply become secondary or are just forgotten about.  That is one of the sad truths about addiction.  And yet, Messner cleverly never lets the story turn preachy or didactic, and always manages to keep it Charlie's story from start to finish, never letting Abby's story take over, even as it takes over Charlie's life.

But, don't be put too off by the wish-granting fish in the midst of a realistic novel, that bit of magical realism that is really a means to an end with a bit of a moral about being careful about what you wish for.  But more importantly, it demonstrates, as Charlie learns, that even magic is useless in that face of life's serious issues.

Kudos to Kate Messner for taking on the difficult topic of drug addiction head on, for coming right out and using the word heroin and not skirting around it with some opaque word for it, and writing a book that is so needed right now.  Heroin addiction is really on the increase among middle class kids eighteen to twenty-five, so be sure to read her author's note about this and places where families can learn more and find treatment help.

By now, most of you know that Messner was disinvited from a school visit by a principal who felt the novel's theme showing the impact of drug addiction on families would generate questions they would "not be able to adequately answer and discuss."  You might read Messner's own thoughts about this sad occurrence HERE, rather than my second-hand recounting of it.

I should add that I also learned quite a bit about ice fishing and Irish step dancing competitions, two things I will never do, but for which I now definitely have a new appreciation.

This book is recommended for readers age 8+
This book was borrowed from the NYPL