Book cover image from Amazon.com.
BETWEEN MOM AND JO
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Peters, Julie Ann. 2006. BETWEEN MOM AND JO. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Company. ISBN 0316739065.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Nick is a fourteen year old boy who has faced many of the challenges teenagers face: losing a pet, a workaholic mother, an alcoholic parent, a mother fighting breast cancer, questions about his sexuality, his parents splitting up, and his parents fighting over custodial rights. The difference is that Nick lives with his two moms, and he has endured a completely different set of problems being the only child in his class who has parents who are gay. As Nick is pulled between his two moms, he discovers how to voice what he truly needs.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This story is told from the view point of Nick, and the author helps us to know him by having him flashback to the events of his youth that bring us to where he and his moms are today. In a flashback from when he was three and had been taken to the hospital by Jo, his “other” mom, “That was my first memory of being alive…Where was Mom? At work probably. Or home…I don’t know why I kept a reminder of that day...Some things leave permanent scars.”
The lesbian relationship was important to the story, but it wasn’t what drove the story. This line from the School Library Journal review of the book explains it better, “This novel is a timely exploration of the struggles faced by same-sex couples and their children, and while the issues are significant, the story is never overwhelmed by them.
Even though Nick has issues involving his classmates and teachers due to the sexuality of his moms; cancer, alcohol, and infidelity are the bigger problems for Nick’s family.
As Nick faces the loss of Jo, who has no custodial rights since she didn’t adopt him, one of the true themes of the book comes to light…”a child in a family facing divorce hurts-no matter what genders comprise the parent couple” (VOYA). Nick explains, “When Jo moved out, she took more than her stuff. She stripped the soul from this house.”
It is imperative that the issues facing our young people today be addressed, and that what occurred at Rutgers University last week becomes a thing of the past. I realize the need for books such as this and I might have been guilty of the self censoring described in the following review excerpt from VOYA, but not now! “Because of this family makeup, many librarians will self-censor the book, doing what Nick's elementary teacher did with his drawings. But the novel needs to be read. Doing so takes one step toward helping this kind of family feel less invisible; doing so represents one step closer to recognizing and supporting their very real existence.”
4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2008 American Library Association’s Rainbow List
5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
From the School Library Journal: “This coming-of-age novel powerfully portrays the universal pain of a family breakup. It also portrays what is still a weird situation to many people (as reflected in the behavior of Nick's babysitter) as totally normal from one young man's point of view.”
From Booklist: “ Fourteen-year-old Nick has two moms who couldn't be more different. His biological mother, Mom, is dependable and careful; Jo, Mom's partner, is irresponsible and impulsive. Nick tells their story in vignettes, including little things, such as the teasing he gets at school, as well as big things, such as Mom's cancer and Jo's alcoholism. Eventually these vignettes turn into a divorce story: Mom finds a new partner; Jo, who has no rights to Nick, struggles on her own; and Nick breaks down after Mom refuses to allow him to see Jo, with whom he wants to live. Nick's incapacitating depression and Mom's refusal to acknowledge it drag on far too long, turning into turgid melodrama. Yet Peters deftly depicts Nick's relationship with his moms and theirs with each other, and the story stays rooted in Nick's sensitive but limited perspective. A novel that will spark discussion.”
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