Starred review from July 7, 2014
When 10th grader Jam Gallahue meets British exchange student Reeve Maxfield, she fees like she finally understands love, and when she loses him, she can’t get over it. Her grief eventually lands her at the Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding school for “emotionally fragile, highly intelligent” teenagers. There, she’s selected for Special Topics in English, a legendary class whose eccentric teacher handpicks her students and gives out journals that, Jam learns, seem to have the ability to take students back to their lives before the disasters that changed them. Making her YA debut, acclaimed author Wolitzer writes crisply and sometimes humorously about sadness, guilt, and anger—Jam’s fellow students each have lines that divide their lives into before and after, and all of them need to move forward. Jam’s class is studying Sylvia Plath, and Wolitzer weaves her life and work into the story with a light hand. Some of this lightness is missing at the end, when Jam reflects how the journals saved her and her classmates, but this is otherwise a strong, original book. Ages 14–up. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, William Morris Endeavor.
Starred review from August 15, 2014
In a riveting exploration of the human psyche, her debut for teens, best-selling author Wolitzer offers a story about what it means to lose someone, or something, you love. Twice. Jam Gallahue is sent to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school for emotionally fragile teens, when she fails to recover from her boyfriend's death. At first, she can't fathom how the school will help her. All she wants to do is stay in bed and remember the 41 days she and Reeve shared. One class, "Special Topics in English," offers her a way to experience those moments in a whole new way-by writing in a particular journal and slipping into a surreal alternate reality. She and the four other members of the class are both thrilled at the opportunity to revel in their old lives and anxious that when the journals fill up, they have to say goodbye all over again. Will the final page be healing or just as terrible as the first loss? Wolitzer's teenage characters are invigorated, flawed, emotionally real and intensely interesting. Even as readers fold back the layers of the story and discover unexpected truths and tragedies, the plot maintains an integrity that has come to be hallmark of Wolitzer's novels. In-depth references to Sylvia Plath add highlights to an already robust text. An enticing blend of tragedy, poetry, surrealism and redemption. (Magical realism. 12-16)
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Starred review from August 1, 2014
Gr 9 Up-Devastated by the death of her first love, 15-year-old Jam Gallahue is having difficulty moving on with her life. After nearly a year of being mired in grief, her parents send her to a boarding school in rural Vermont that specializes in "emotionally fragile" teens. Once there, she is surprised to have been one of five students selected by the legendary Mrs. Quenell for a class called Special Topics in English. It seems that the entire semester-Mrs. Q's swan song before retirement-will be devoted to the works of Sylvia Plath, and the students are given special red leather journals in which to record their reactions to the assigned readings. Jam is unenthusiastic at first until she realizes that these are no ordinary journals. When she and her classmates, all of whom have endured debilitating losses, begin to writing in their pages, they are transported to their former lives, at least for a while. The teens bond over their experiences in what they call Belzhar, and are able to share their stories and look out for and protect one another. As the semester progresses and the notebooks begin to fill up, they must each confront some inner demons and make some tough choices about their future paths. Wolitzer spins a smart and engrossing tale of trauma, trust, and triumph. She is respectful of the intelligence and sophistication of the teens while acknowledging their vulnerability and lack of life experience. Their voices ring true and the emotional truths are authentic-even for those readers unwilling or unable to embrace the magical realism. Exploring the themes of self-reflection and the recurring notion that "words matter" make this title a perfect choice for book groups and discussions.-Luann Toth, School Library Journal
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 When Jam suffers a terrible trauma and feels isolated by grief, her parents send her to the Wooden Barn, a boarding school for highly intelligent, emotionally fragile teens. Once there she is enrolled in a class with only five specially selected students where they exclusively read Sylvia Plath. Sound angsty? Of course it is (check out the Joy Division T-shirt on the cover), but beneath the depressive trappings is a moving story of emotional growth in the face of catastrophic loss. All of Jam's classmates are similarly grief-stricken, and Plath's work, as well as magical journals that transport each student into the blissful moment before his or her loss occurred, help them move on and appreciate their resilience. Wolitzer handles Jam's increasingly complex psychological state with delicate, nonjudgmental nuancethe first-person narrative slowly reveals the sticky circumstances of her trauma as well as her growing realization that living in the past is paralyzing. While the conclusion is a touch heavy-handed, older teen readers, especially rabid Plath fans, will relish Wolitzer's deeply respectful treatment of Jam's realistic emotional struggle HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Older teen fans of Wolitzer's New York Times best-selling adult novel The Interestings (2013) will likely flock to her YA debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)
November 24, 2014
After the death of her boyfriend, Jam Gallahue is sent to the Wooden Barn, a special high school for “emotionally fragile, highly intelligent” teens. She begins taking Special Topics in English, a class where she and four other students spend the semester studying one writer’s works: in this case, Sylvia Plath. Jam and her classmates are given journals to write in, and when they do, they are transported to a place they call Belzhar, a place that seems to exist out of time, where whatever tragedies happened to them never occurred. Narrator Marie is adept in presenting this powerful story. Jam’s English boyfriend’s voice is described as having a “scrape” to it. Marie nails that, but his accent comes and goes. This is a minor flaw in the narrator’s otherwise excellent performance. Marie gives Jam a youthful, buzzy edge; an elegant, elderly teacher has a creak to her voice that fits her age; and Jam’s little brother has a slightly squeaky tone. Marie’s choices are all true to the characters and are performed with seemingly no effort. Wolitzer’s book is a carefully crafted, heart-wrenching description of mental illness, and Marie underplays Jam’s affliction so that when the big reveal happens, listeners are taken by surprise. Ages 14–up. A Dutton hardcover.
January 1, 2015
After her boyfriend's death, Jam is shipped to a boarding school for "emotionally fragile, highly intelligent" teens. She's placed in a course for which the only materials are Sylvia Plath's poems, The Bell Jar, and a journal to write in. Much of this powerful book straddles the real and the supernatural, but it's ultimately about the otherworldly things the mind is capable of.
(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
November 1, 2014
After her boyfriend Reeve's death, Jam Gallahue is shipped off to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school for "emotionally fragile, highly intelligent" teens. There she's placed in a widely coveted, extremely selective course called Special Topics in English, one of just five students in the class. Jam doesn't understand why she was chosen, and she isn't especially pumped about the semester's only materials: Sylvia Plath's poems; her autobiographical novel The Bell Jar; and a journal to write in. However, while completing her first assignment she's surprised to find that the act of writing in the journal transports her to an alternate realm where all is exactly, blissfully, as it had been with Reeve -- a phenomenon experienced by everyone in the Special Topics class. Once camaraderie develops among the students, they are able to understand how traveling to "Belzhar" helps them cope with their painful pasts. Much of the book seems to straddle the real and the supernatural, but it's ultimately about the otherworldly things the mind is capable of -- in its reaction to trauma but also in its ability to heal. Wolitzer's novel is rich with biographical tidbits about Plath, thoughtful discussion of her writing, and evidence of a deep connection with and understanding of her motifs. The parallel works well within Jam's story; her isolation and inability to see clearly through pain, until, satisfyingly, she steps out of a proverbial bell jar and realizes that "the experiences you've lived through, make you definitely not fragile. They make you brave." katrina hedeen
(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)