Life Is Fine

March 17, 2008
The title of Whittenberg’s (Sweet Thang
) penetrating novel notwithstanding, life is not fine for 15-year-old Samara, who sees her future as an endless parade of days to be endured. Samara’s complaints about her mother’s loser boyfriends go ignored (“You don’t like him? Go live somewhere else,” her mother responds). “I hated my life in this cluttered, hollow house,” Samara declares early on. “I should have had my own life, but I didn’t. All I had was Dru .” Then a substitute teacher, Jerome Halbrook, shows up in her English class and changes everything, simply by caring about what he’s teaching—poetry—and about what his students are saying. Samara develops a crush on him, never mind that he’s five times her age, and while “Mr. Brook” discourages her romantic interest, he uses it to pry open her troubles. Mr. Brook has his own demons, however, and when he falls ill, Samara, armed with newfound confidence, draws on the optimism he has taught her. Samara’s voice is sharp and convincing, and disguises any whiff of the Dead Poets Society/Mr. Chips sorts of familiarity about the plot. Ages 12-up.

February 1, 2008
Gr 8 Up-Life for Samara Tuttle is so not fine. Her mother is unapproachable and cold. Q, her mother's current worthless boyfriend, is a lazy, aggressive, slob. School is, to say the least, chaotic and uninspiring. Samara has no friends, except a strange affinity with Dru, an orangutan in the Philadelphia Zoo. She is waiting to graduate high school and start her own life]even if she doesn't quite know where it will lead her. Enter the dapper, older substitute English teacher, Mr. Jerome Halbrook, who regales bored high school students with readings of great poems by Andrew Marvell, Emily Dickinson, and Langston Hughes (reproduced at the end of the book for curious readers). Reluctantly captivated, Samara is intrigued and in serious crush mode. Who is this enigmatic, blue-eyed African-American teacher whom she calls "Mr. Brook?" Why is he teachingin an expensive suit and tie, no lessin an inner-city Philadelphia high school? He is interested in her, but not in the way she'd like him to be. Samara is consumed for a time by adolescent obsession, but when "Mr. Brook" disappears from the scene, she realizes that she must find a way to begin to define a life for herself. Whittenberg's writing evokes stark images, and the poetic, often-staccato prose provides an interesting counterpoint between Samara's inner and outer world."Roxanne Myers Spencer, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2008
Angry, alone, and totally ignored by her single-parent mom, 15-year-old Samara has only one close relationshipwith an orangutan at the Philadelphia zoo. Then she gets a serious crush on her substitute English teacher, Mr. Jerome Halbrook, who reads poetry aloud in their inner-city classroom. At first she is totally negative (Poetry was pointless. At least fiction could be turned into a movie), but to her own surprise, Andrew Marvells To His Coy Mistress draws her into the class discussion (He was just trying to get into her pants). She wants to get close to the kind, brown-skinned, blue-eyed teacher, who gives her more poetry, but rejects romance. Whittenberg takes on serious issues here without being messagy, and Samaras clipped, colloquial, first-person narrative is fast, funny, and poeticwhether dealing with her loneliness in her cluttered hollow house or the abuse she suffered at the hands of Moms previous boyfriend. In the background are the poems Mr. Halbrook reads aloud, which many teens will want to read more than just once.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)