Bent Not Broken: Madeline and Justin

Written by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Clockwise Press

978-1-4998-347-03-5

224 pp.

Ages 13+

March 2017

Lorna Schultz Nicholson's first two One-2-One books, Fragile Bones: Harrison & Anna (2015) and Born With: Erika & Gianni (2016), introduced high school students in the Best Buddies program.  In those books, students with autism and Down syndrome partnered with other teens who volunteered to provide physical and/or emotional support.  But, better than the support, they share friendships that grow and establish a community that reaches beyond the school.  Bent Not Broken is the newest book in the series, providing an uplifting tale that demonstrates the inarguable successes of the Best Buddies program.

Fourteen-year-old Madeline used to be faster, smarter, more accomplished than her twin Becky.  Then, at age eight, Madeline had an accident when the two were out on their bikes. Now Madeline feels defined by her brain damage that causes her to speak very slowly, to have regular meltdowns and experience wildly crazy emotions and to struggle in school.  Though Becky has been obliging her for years, still being one of the few who knows how to help Madeline when her emotions take over and she begins to hit herself about the head, Becky has found a new set of friends whom she begins to emulate though they are rude and engaged in inappropriate behaviours.  

Fortunately, Madeline has some positives in her life that ease much of her anxiety about her sister and her own vulnerabilities.  She gets to spend time with her Best Buddy, a senior named Justin ("I liked him because he didn't feel sorry for me; he just liked me"; pg. 16) who in turn finds being with Madeline helpful in coping with the death of his autistic sister who succumbed to an eating disorder.  Moreover, Madeline volunteers at a horse therapy barn where she once received therapy by spending time with the miniature horses.

The barn is Madeline's salvation and even becomes a haven for Justin and his mother, both finding some healing amongst the horses.  But Becky is less enthused now about fulfilling her own volunteering commitment there.  In fact, she begins to use the barn as an opportunity to sneak away with her friends and starts to take advantage of Madeline's affliction to benefit herself.  Though Madeline sees herself now as the weaker of the twins, she begins to achieve some wonderful successes socially and creatively while Becky begins a descent into dangerous circumstances.  Luckily, Madeline discovers she has the courage to step up and be there for her sister as Becky had been for her. 

Lorna Schultz Nicholson's books in the One-2-One series attest to the strengths we all have even when dealing with physical or mental trials, and that's why Bent Not Broken is the very best of titles and the very best of stories.  The imagery of something being bent not broken, like a willow bough, is a powerful one.  Being bent does not mean weak.  Think of bentwood furniture.  It's still strong, just in a different configuration than wood is typically used.  So too is Madeline after her accident and resulting brain injury but also Justin after his sister's death, his mother with her depression, Becky with her guilt, and Madeline's parents with their marriage.  None of them are the same.  All have been reshaped by circumstances.  Still there is resilience, the need to persevere and accept new postures.

There's a reason Bent Not Broken was selected by young readers as one of the ten titles recommended for Red Maple readers on the first  Summer Reading List of the Forest Kid Committee.  These young people could appreciate a book that spoke to them about being strong and compassionate regardless of the struggle.  Bent Not Broken, like the earlier books, speaks to the best of us and makes us want to be better, which we can be.

With Malice

by Eileen Cook

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

978-0-544-80509-5

316 pp.

Ages 13+

June 2016

Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron just wants the truth.  Waking up in a hospital room without any memories of how she got there and struggling to find words because of a brain injury means that getting at the truth is not going to be easy.  As the byline to the book states, "The truth is how you tell it" and it seems the truths are multitudinous and varied.

Jill's divorced parents seem to want to keep a lot of truths from her, especially the key one that Simone McIvory, Jill’s best friend, was killed in the car being driven by Jill while on a school trip in Italy.  The police, both American and Italian, as well as Evan Stanley, her high-priced lawyer, are badgering her for the truths she can’t remember.  And everybody else, from other students on the trip, to newspaper reports, crime drama series, and subscribers to the “Justice for Simone” blog are more than willing to share their opinions as to the truth.  But what is the truth and is there only one?

While Jill, whisked back to the States by her rich and demanding father, endures rehab and counselling to help heal her body and six weeks of memory loss, the police interview Simone’s parents who portray their daughter as a confident and popular teen with old-fashioned values, and Jill as a less well-liked girl from a broken home and desperate for attention.  Though the strength of their friendship is recognized by many who knew them, different stories arise with regards to the two girls-chilly or friendly, studious or popular, jealous or self-centered–by those who knew them well or just marginally and even by those who’d never met them but nastily weigh in on the news story.

“It doesn’t matter what’s true–what matters is what people believe.” (pg. 102)

Eileen Cook brilliantly layers the multifaceted truths recounted in blog posts, transcripts of police interviews, newspaper articles, yearbooks, and other media as she intricately develops the subplots of With Malice, all with the purpose of revealing what actually happened to Simone and Jill in that car in Italy.  Below the very concrete mess of a mangled car lies a substantial mess of romance, anger, pettiness, jealously, hurt and misplaced affection.  The ultimate truth is both expected and surprising and Eileen Cook reveals it with breath-taking patience, taking YA readers on a suspenseful read all the way to the end before exposing a friendship admittedly more fragile than honest.

Voiceless

by Caroline Wissing

Thistledown Press

978-1-897235-98-0

241 pp.

Ages 14+

2012

Even before Annabel becomes voiceless, her life is tenuous, though virtually tethered to the very mother who causes its deficiencies.  Abandonning Annabel at age 5 for a boyfriend, leaving her to be rescued by the police and to move in with Granny, Annabel's mother pops in intermittently, always with ephemeral cheer and a new boyfriend and the promise to return for her daughter.  Unfortunately, the last time Annabel sees her mother, during the Christmas holidays of her Grade 7 year, is the night Mama and new beau Julian ransack Granny's apartment looking for money and Granny is murdered.

Voiceless now, Annabel goes into foster care and is placed at the Noble Spirit Farm and Horse Sanctuary of Mary and Bobby Gervais.  While becoming a foster child can be the beginning of more transience, Annabel's placement provides her with some comfort, especially with a rescued horse, Jett.  Now being called Ghost, Annabel joins other foster children at the farm: Tully, a teen boy with dwarfism; Char, a street-wise young prostitute; and Big Jerome, an Ojibwa teen whose little brother killed himself with a rifle carelessly stored by his negligent, alcoholic parents. But the arrival of Graydon Fox (whose history is unclear) and the sexual relationship he and Ghost form leads Ghost away from the farm, into the savage, drink- or drug-addled world of Graydon's acquaintance, Cooper.

Annabel/Ghost's world is gritty and dangerous, evoked well by Caroline Wissing's text.  Profanities, alcohol, drugs, sex, prostitution, rape, theft, abuse and arson are all part of the fabric of Annabel/Ghost's life.

"The room was abuzz with people going about the individual business, everyone with their drunk or drugged out tunnel vision, caring only about themselves." (pg. 151)

Imagine believing that "Going to a dance felt like suicide to me" (pg. 121) or that "I felt like I was walking around in a prison full of dead eyes" (pg. 100).  The few tender instances are so fleeting that it's unbelievable that Ghost has only lost her voice, not her essence.  But that essence is still always present, knowing and doing the right thing instinctively though problematic.  Annabel/Ghost finds a way to get the police involved in investigating Cooper, without involving herself.  Moreover, while others around her were using drugs, Ghost will not use them, afraid of becoming her mother.  And when Francine, an unpleasant girl sleeping with Cooper becomes pregnant and Cooper performs an ad hoc abortion, Ghost finds a way to get Francine to the hospital. 

Voiceless is not an easy read.  It's not a coming of age story in which a girl learns who she is and develops into that person, although that does essentially happen for Annabel.  But Voiceless provides greater messages, offering the reader the evidence that voicelessness (or blindness or paraplegia or any other disability) is not in itself the tragedy. The tragedy is in the context.  Ghost may be voiceless but she is substantive and never stronger than when she is voiceless.  Annabel finds the means to communicate and right wrongs without the spoken word, ultimately letting her voicelessness propel her to a future in which she has a say, guaranteeing her a happier life, finally.