A poignant coming-of-age story, THE YEAR OF THE SAWDUST MAN chronicles a year in the life of Nissa Bergen. Her impulsive mother has just run off, leaving Nissa and her father behind in the wake of small town gossip.
A fairly quiet and reflective book, I found it to be insightful and realistic. Flashbacks focused on Nissa’s unique and fun relationship with her missing mother, while the eleven-year-old also dealt with the current problem of watching her father move on with another woman.
One thing I found particularly compelling was the way Nissa’s feelings about her mother wavered uncertainly. One day Nissa would think of her with adoration and complete loyalty, ready to fight whomever spoke a bad word. The next day, she’d remember her mother’s flightiness and instability and be appropriately angry at her abandonment. This felt very believable and understandably confused.
Milkweed Editions has sparked my interest lately, as I make my way through books that have waited far too long on my shelves for their due attention. I look forward to unburying more treasures like this one from my “to be read” stack.
Off to Turn Another Page….

Please allow me a "geek" moment.

Like many people, I check out my Google Alerts now and then. Ya know, to be sure none of the other "Julie Prince"s out there are starring in porno flicks or anything I should know about before I learn it the hard way.

Anyhoo, I found a professor's 'Intro to Literature' assignment that quoted yours truly:

"In her review of The Lucky Place for ALAN, Julie M. Prince comments that, 'The challenge of keeping a character’s voice believable and consistent is always difficult. Vincent manages it under doubly difficult circumstances, since this story spans from Cassie at age three to Cassie at age twelve. Vincent has done an amazing job of capturing the world from a preschooler’s perspective and growing the voice along with the character.' Your challenge in this week's discussion forum is to first write your adult version of the event, and then try to capture that same event or memory from the perspective of the kid you used to be, the one who lived it firsthand."

Is it corny that I'm more proud of this than I am of my actual publications? *tee hee*