Jasmine and Maddie

April 1, 2014

Gr 6-10-Two eighth grade girls-so different and yet so alike. Jasmine has moved from New Hampshire to Clover, Connecticut, looking for a fresh start. Her father's death from cancer filled her with a rage that culminated in a physical assault on a girl where she used to live. Now her mother is working two jobs and they live in a trailer park, which Jasmine finds humiliating. Her anger smolders. In contrast, Maddie appears to have it all-caring parents, three siblings, a beautiful home. Yet Maddie has her own issues-she harbors a one-sided sibling rivalry exacerbated by an identity crisis, and she is further humiliated when she doesn't make the soccer team and her best friend does. Maddie and Jasmine's Emily Dickinson project brings the two girls together. Over the course of the story, both girls act out, seek forgiveness, and then turn around to repeat the same mistakes. Poetry winds throughout-some classics and some original in the voices of Clover's eighth grade students. When Maddie and Jasmine reach an impasse with nowhere to hide, they are forced to take a unflinching look at themselves. This is a sometimes painful story tempered with honesty, growth, and a true effort to move on in an imperfect world.-Kathy Cherniavsky, Ridgefield Library, CT

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2014
Can two seemingly opposite girls become friends? Jasmine and her recently widowed mom move to Connecticut for a fresh start. As an eighth-grader living in a trailer park in an affluent community, feisty, hurting Jasmine encounters the painful pecking order of middle school. She meets wealthy, spacey, still-dressing-like-a-little-girl Maddie, who on the surface appears to be as different as possible from sarcastic, belligerent, chip-on-her-shoulder Jasmine. Jasmine has lost her gram, dad, home and dog. She angrily uses her fists, easily lies and readily resorts to stealing. Maddie, a middle child who fears she compares unfavorably to her older sister, doesn't make the soccer team and loses her best friend, who does. Maddie also resorts to lies and theft. This friendship story is marred by contrivances. The ease and frequency of the girls' lying and stealing seem improbable, and in the span of three weeks at the beginning of school, each realizes she needs a friend. Poems interspersed throughout (both famous poems and ones penned by the students) and the message that poetry is cool are engaging touches, although the extemporaneous student poems seem far too polished to be credible. While no new ground is covered in Pakkala's novel, the spot-on cover will entice readers who will identify with the pain of middle school, enjoy the well-developed secondary characters and applaud the girls' growth. (Fiction. 10-14)

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