Yes, I have been gone for a couple days.
This was not only due to the fact that my son came back home from college for the long weekend. We also, for the first time ever, lost phone and internet service at el Rancho de Drew.
It was probably a good thing, anyway.
But yesterday, I received a copy of the Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books upcoming December review of Stick. A very nice review, in which, according to my editor, the last lines pretty much say it all:
Smith, Andrew Stick. Feiwel, 2011 [304p] ISBN 978-0-312-61341-9 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12
Born
with only one ear, Stick has grown used to the teasing he endures at
school. Worse, however, is the abuse he and his brother endure at home
at the hands of both their mother
and father, who express their displeasure with savage beatings and by
locking their sons in a room bare of all save a cot and a bucket. Stick
and Bosten have each other, though, and they each have a close
friend—Stick has Emily, and Bosten has Paul, in a relationship
that is more than just friendship. It turns out that they also have an
aunt, and when they go to her house for their Easter vacation they
realize how different home life might be. It’s hard to go back home,
especially when they find out that their mother has
moved out, leaving them with their father, whom Stick realizes has been
sexually abusing Bosten as well as beating them. When Bosten and Paul
are caught in a compromising act, Bosten has no choice but to run away,
and Stick soon follows, only to run into more
trouble than he left at home. This tragic story has at its heart a solid
core of brotherly love and loyalty that survives even the worst of
situations; it’s those situations that are exceptionally difficult to
read about and conceptualize, with their harsh
and gritty realism. Aunt Dahlia seems almost too good to be true if
readers don’t think too hard about the fact that she hasn’t tried to see
the boys for the first sixteen years of their lives; however, it’s
enough that she offers a safe haven for them when
they finally make their escape. The prose is strong and evocative,
lapsing into imagistic poetry at times to reveal the intensity of
Stick’s emotions. Readers should be prepared to have their hearts broken
by these vulnerable, utterly lovable brothers.
So, thank you for that nice review, BCCB.
