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Losses can sideswipe us even years after they occur. Even as we mourn the loss of loved ones and start to recover, we still miss them, often in unexpected ways. This deeply affecting novel deals with losses on several levels. It grabs readers' attention immediately with the main character still struggling with her addiction to meth. Laurel Daneau has moved with her family from Pass Christian, Mississippi to a small town in Iowa where she continues to heal after the devastating loss of her mother
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Fifteen year old Laurel tells the story of her addiction to meth ("moon", to addicts) in this gritty realistic (but not too dark) novel. Laurel is a good kid but one snort of meth from the handsome basketball player whom she's flattered is paying attention to her, and she's hooked. Her life quickly spirals out of control as she sneaks out of the house to be with him, lies to her father, ends up running away when father finds out and she can't keep away from the stuff. Flashbacks show how her lif
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Laurel (13-15) who is from a good/ "normal" home starts doing meth "the moon" (as Laurel always calls it)with her boyfriend and spirals down hill and lives on the street. A modern less sensationalized/preachy "Go ask Alice",although not told in journal form. Set in small town Iowa, where her family has moved from Mississippi. Jumps around in time, with short chapters. Well written, really capturing her psych and struggle and also the romanticism of the drug. Woodson also explores Laurel's strugg
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Oh, did this make me cry. Grief is such a powerful thing and Woodson shows how it can change the whole shape of lives. It did seem very much a sketch, but that made sense to me for the conceit of the book - that Laurel is writing an elegy for her dead family members and for the months of her life she's lost, for the relationships she may never be able to fully repair.
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A heart-breaking story of a young girl who turns to meth in order to suppress the painful loss of her mother and grandmother.
3.5 Read as part of a 2013 Mock Printz Book Club.
At Reading Rants: http://bit.ly/zgsDBA
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I wouldn't have thought that a lyrical book about meth addiction for middle school and up would have been possible, but Woodson is a writer who can pull it off. The first time I started reading this, I didn't get far, but when I tried it again I had a hard time putting it down. Guess the timing wasn't right for me a month ago. Well done and I haven't read anything quite like it before.
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Every parents worst nightmare but such a well written and important read. I couldn't put it down.
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I love Jacqueline Woodson's writing, which makes reading any subject matter, no matter how challenging, enjoyable. This story is about a girl whose life takes a tragic turn when her family loses two members to Katrina in 2005, when she is eleven. When we meet her at 15, she has discovered meth, which gives her a welcome escape from her grief.
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Jackie Woodson's writing is like butta. I only wish that this would have been longer.
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Mar 17, 2012
Barbara A.
marked it as to-read
Apr 15, 2012
Michelle
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Apr 27, 2012
Mary Beth
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May 17, 2012
Ann
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May 20, 2012
Donalyn
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Aug 19, 2012
Annisha Jeffries
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Nov 16, 2013
Dana Berglund
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Dec 17, 2013
Bethany Miller
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
short-and-sweet-200-pages-or-less
Apr 25, 2014
Dawn
marked it as to-read
Aug 27, 2016
Liz
marked it as to-read
