Cover image from Amazon.com.
SWEETHEARTS
1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zarr, Sara. 2008. SWEETHEARTS. New York, NY: Little, Brown, and Company. ISBN 9780316014557.
2. PLOT SUMMARY
Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were social outcasts and best friends. “How us being together all the time made us a bigger target, the whole of our exile being greater than the sum of our outcast parts. How we didn’t care because we had each other.” One day Cameron disappears without telling Jennifer good-bye. Now the lisping, overweight, binge eating Jennifer has no one to call friend.
The summer before Jennifer begins seventh grade, her mother marries Alan Vaughn.
Jennifer becomes Jenna Vaughn and she starts life over in a new school district. She has lost weight, no longer lisps, and becomes part of the “in” crowd. On her seventeenth birthday she receives a package in the mail from Cameron, telling her he is back in town. Cameron comes back into Jenna’s life and has transformed as she has.
Jenna has never forgotten her first friend nor has Cameron forgotten her. As she laments about how horrible their childhood was together he tells her, “We had each other. I never needed anyone else.” As Jenna grows closer to Cameron, she discovers why he left without explanation (he and his family were victims of domestic violence and left his abusive father). Cameron again leaves, but this time he is able to contact Jenna and tell her why. Jenna is left wondering if her love for Cameron was the true love of forever.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
As I began this book, I thought I would be reading a sweet little romance. The cover had a heart cookie on it with a bite taken out of it and the title was Sweethearts. I was pleasantly surprised. This story is written in the first person narrative. Jenna Vaughn aka Jennifer Harris tells us the story from her point of view. In flashbacks we meet the overweight, unclean, lisping Jennifer who steals food in order to fill a hunger within that has nothing to do with food, but acceptance. Her elementary years are tolerable due to her friend, Cameron, who lives in a home where domestic abuse is the norm. After escaping a terrifying incident concerning Cameron’s father, the two children are even closer than ever. That makes Cameron’s abrupt departure from Jennifer’s life even harder for her to accept.
The voice of Jenna Vaughn, the now slim, clean, clear spoken seventeen year old is one of confidence until her seventeenth birthday arrives and she is confronted with the memories of her young self, as Cameron reenters her life. We are given a first hand account of Jenna’s struggle with herself as she begins to feel the need for food and binging. “Jenna struggles to see the child she was more clearly, to find a way to integrate her past into her present and to work toward self-acceptance” (School Library Journal).
The author brings to light many tough issues that young people go through from binging to homelessness, in a way that is realistic. According to the School Library Journal, “Sweethearts is not saccharine; it is substantial.”
4. AWARDS AND HONORS
2009 Booklist Best Books for Young Adults
2009 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
5. REVIEW EXCERPTS
A starred review from VOYA: "[Zarr is a] master of show-not-tell....[a] subtle, beautifully-written novel."
From Kirkus Reviews: "Haunting and ultimately hopeful....A convincing, fire person narrative voice....Zarr transfixes teen readers with enticing explorations of identity and enduring love."
No comments:
Post a Comment