Jellicoe RoadBy Melina Marchetta
HarperTeen, 2008. 419 pgs. Young Adult
Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother on the Jellicoe Road when she was eleven years old and since then has been somewhat looked after by Hannah, the adult in charge of her dorm at the Jellicoe School. Hannah knows more about Taylor’s past than Taylor knows, but Hannah won’t tell Taylor anything. This really bothers Taylor, but it really worries her that she will never know when Hannah disappears one day. Taylor’s lack of knowledge becomes more of a burden when she is chosen to lead the territory wars against the Townies and the Cadets. Taylor becomes even more concerned when she learns that Jonah Griggs will be leading the Cadets in the wars this year, for Taylor and Jonah share a haunted past event. Interspersed with Taylors’s story is the story of five teens twenty years earlier who met after a tragic accident on the Jellicoe Road. The two stories eventually come together in an interesting manner.
I enjoyed this book, but I didn’t race through it. I thought it was well-written and I enjoyed how the two stories were so intertwined. I did become a bit overwhelmed at times by all the angst Taylor has and the events she experiences. This is probably for older teen readers; there is some bad language peppered throughout and younger teens might not identify with the adult characters.
MN
3 comments:
I enjoyed this one, but it took a lot of patience to make it through the first quarter of the book. The plot's very confusing until the relationship between the two stories starts to become clear.
I know what you mean. I felt a "payoff" for the work of trying to figure out the connections, so for me that was a plus not a minus.
I enjoyed this book as well. It does have quite a bit of language, but I feel that it is well written and worthy of the Printz Award.
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