Sarah
Tregay
ISBN:
978-0062023582
Katherine
Tegan, 2012
Plot
Summary: Marcie’s
mom dragged her from her home in Idaho to
their summer home in New Hampshire
for the summer to get away from her father who turns out to have a new
20-something year-old boyfriend, Danny. When a summer away turns into fall and
it looks like they aren’t going back, Marcie has to face the facts that her mom
has permanently run away from their former lives and she is forced to begin all
over again at a new school leaving behind her emo boyfriend Linus and the
Leftovers—her group of misfit toy friends. While struggling with her depressed
mother and missing her boyfriend and best friends, Marcie makes some new
friends, including J.D., a nice boy she’s just going to be friends with
figuring she’ll be stuck in New Hampshire indefinitely. However, when she ends
up doing some pretty physical stuff that makes it seem that she and J.D. are
headed toward more than friends, she decides she needs to break up with Linus
who, when she thinks about it, doesn’t seem to really love her anyway so it’s
good for them to both move on. When her mother finds condoms in her room, she
calls Marcie’s father and demands that he come and get Marcie and take her
home. Soon she’s reunited with her friends and Linus, who she never got a
chance to break up with. Loving Linus confesses his love for Marcie and she
confesses what she did with J.D. causing Linus to break up with her which
causes a huge rift in the Leftovers. Can Marcie get her relationship with her
friends back on track? Can she show Linus he’s the one she truly loves?
Critical
Evaluation:
Honestly, I don’t usually go for free verse poetry books, but I read good
reviews about this book and decided to give it a try. Marcie is one of those
good intentioned girls that makes bad decision after bad decision after bad
decision. Confused over Linus’s apparent lack of physical passion for her and
the stress of a long distance relationship, she convinces herself that she and
Linus aren’t meant for each other and cheats on him with J.D. and is too scared
too break it off with Linus. Throughout the book she grows as a character. When
she bares her heart to him and he realizes she didn’t actually sleep with J.D.
they realize they can move on and fix their relationship. It is a well-written,
romantic portrayal of high school love.
Reader's
Annotation:
When Marcie’s life gets turned upside down and she finds her summer vacation
away turning into a permanent stay in a new town at a new school, she is faced
with the tough decision of whether or not she and her boyfriend, Linus, are
really meant for each other. Especially once J.D. starts noticing her.
Author
Information:
Raised without television, Tregay started writing her own middle grade novels
after she had read all of the ones in the library. She later discovered YA
books, but never did make it to the adult section. When she’s not jotting down
poems at stoplights, she can be found hanging out with her "little
sister" from Big Brothers Big Sisters or stressing over performance
classes at a model horse show. She has both a Bachelor’s and Master’s of Fine
Art in graphic design, and her obsession with typography and layout naturally
translates into formatting poetry on the page. She lives in Eagle, Idaho, with her husband,
two Boston Terriers, and an appaloosa named Mr. Pots (Tegay, n.d.).
Genre: Realistic Fiction (written in
free verse poetry)
Curriculum
Ties: N/A
Booktalking
Ideas: Read
portions of Marcie’s entries that deal with the isolation and nervousness felt
when transferring schools or when starting a new relationship.
Reading
Level/Interest Age: 14+
Challenge
Issues: Gay
parents, underage drinking, underage sexual relations, sexual acts described
(orgasms, being “felt up”, getting a hard on, etc.)
Challenge
Defense: If
this book were challenged, I would make sure the library has a Challenge
Defense File ready for such a situation. Inside the Challenge Defense File,
librarians and the public could find:
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Library
Bill of Rights. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill)
·
A
copy of the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read Statement (Can be
found and printed from ALA’s
website at http://www.ala.org/offices/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement)
·
A
copy of the library’s own selection policy (my library, the La Vista Public
Library, has a policy but it is not online so I can’t link to it as an
example).
·
A
copy of the library’s citizen’s complaint/reconsideration form (my library, the
La Vista Public Library’s, form is called the City of La Vista Service Request form).
·
Copies
of reviews—both good and bad—from reputable library and publishing services to
justify why a book was selected for inclusion in the collection. These include
not only reviews from such journals as School
Library Journal, VOYA, Horn Book, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist, but also any mention of books
on YALSA lists and other copies of articles about any awards or nominations
such books may have received.
·
Include
a short rationale file for other coworkers so if the librarian in charge of
selecting materials is not available when a challenge occurs the other staff
members have some information to go by (the rational would include such
information as a short summary, what could be challenged, reviews, awards and
nominations, etc.)
·
Include
for staff members a copy of “Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to
Library Materials,” a document written by the American Library Association.
Make sure that staff reviews this document periodically so they are prepared
and know how to face such situations. (Can be found and printed from ALA’s website at http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips)
Reason
for Inclusion:
A quick, well-written and honest realistic novel written in free verse.
References:
Tregay,
S. (n.d.). About Sarah Tregay. Retrieved
from http://sarahtregay.com/aboutme.html
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