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The Book of Fred
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From: Angelica Carpenter <angelica>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:02:31 -0800
Dear friends,
The best coming of age novel I have read in many years is The Book of Fred by Abby Bardi. I have written about it to CCBC before, but can't resist doing so again: The heroine, a young 15, has lived all her life in a very restrictive cult. After two of her young brothers die of preventable causes, her parents are arrested and Mary Fred is placed with a foster family--a librarian, her bratty teenage daughter, and the librarian's brother. At first Mary Fred is appalled by the "Lackers." She is shocked by modern American life as, for the first time, she goes to a mall, watches trashy daytime TV, and reads books other than The Book of Fred (I love it that she reads Ozma of Oz). She warms to the family and they grow to like her, too, but when her mother gets out of jail, she returns to cult life. Her perspective flips back and forth dramatically. The story is told chronologically from four points of view, in four "books," narrated by the four main characters. So there are flips and surprises for the reader, too. Mary Fred must reconcile radically different views of life within herself and eventually she has to choose between the two lifestyles. Don't start this book on a day when you have to go to work, that's my advice!
Angelica Carpenter, Curator Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature California State University
Received on Mon 17 Nov 2003 08:02:31 PM CST
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 18:02:31 -0800
Dear friends,
The best coming of age novel I have read in many years is The Book of Fred by Abby Bardi. I have written about it to CCBC before, but can't resist doing so again: The heroine, a young 15, has lived all her life in a very restrictive cult. After two of her young brothers die of preventable causes, her parents are arrested and Mary Fred is placed with a foster family--a librarian, her bratty teenage daughter, and the librarian's brother. At first Mary Fred is appalled by the "Lackers." She is shocked by modern American life as, for the first time, she goes to a mall, watches trashy daytime TV, and reads books other than The Book of Fred (I love it that she reads Ozma of Oz). She warms to the family and they grow to like her, too, but when her mother gets out of jail, she returns to cult life. Her perspective flips back and forth dramatically. The story is told chronologically from four points of view, in four "books," narrated by the four main characters. So there are flips and surprises for the reader, too. Mary Fred must reconcile radically different views of life within herself and eventually she has to choose between the two lifestyles. Don't start this book on a day when you have to go to work, that's my advice!
Angelica Carpenter, Curator Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature California State University
Received on Mon 17 Nov 2003 08:02:31 PM CST
