Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined

by Danielle Younge-Ullman

Overview

Like Wild for teens! In the tradition of Sara Zarr and A. S. King, a girl must survive an extreme wilderness experience to prove to her mother that she has the strength to pursue her dreams.


     When she was a little girl, Ingrid's entire world was her mother: Margot-Sophia, the brilliant and sophisticated opera star. So when Margot-Sophia loses her singing voice, Ingrid loses everything. The two of them move to a small, normal house in a normal town, where Ingrid tries to convince her mother that there must still be something worth living for. It's in this small, normal life that Ingrid discovers her own passion for the theater arts. But Margot-Sophia refuses to support her daughter's dreams. They strike a deal: if Ingrid makes it through a summer of an extreme wilderness experience, then she can have her chance to pursue life as a performer. Over the course of this summer, Ingrid is stripped of every dignity and freedom. But she also comes to terms with her inner demons — and finally confronts the secret tragedy that defines her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143198215
Publisher:	Tundra Book Group
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.31(h) x 0.91(d)
Lexile:	HL810L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

DANIELLE YOUNGE-ULLMAN studied English and Theater at McGill University in Montreal, then worked as professional actor for ten years. This was character-building time during which she held a wild variety of acting and non-acting jobs—everything from working on the stage and in independent films, to dubbing English voices for Japanese TV, to temping, to teaching pilates. She now lives in an old house in Toronto that's constantly being renovated, with her husband and two daughters.

Read an Excerpt

It could have been that I was a child.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Danielle Younge-Ullman.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Young Readers Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Selected for the American Library Association's 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults List

"Outstanding."—School Library Journal

* "An emotionally resonant, fabulously crafted novel."—Quill & Quire, starred review

"An elegant, humorous tearjerker."—The Guardian

"Ultimately a book about complicated family relationships and depression, this will speak to fans of Sarah Dessen."—Booklist

"Ingrid is an authentic, fully developed character, and her adventures and insights will keep readers riveted to the page."—VOYA

"An honest examination of the messy pain inherent in breaking away from a parent."—The Globe and Mail

"Younge-Ullman's subtle approach to narrative pacing allows readers to accompany Ingrid on her journey to fully confront and accept her past as she discovers her own true voice."—Kirkus Reviews

"This compelling story about love, loss, and self-discovery took every one of my emotions on a beautiful journey. I loved it."—Kasie West, author of The Fill-In Boyfriend

"Absolutely compelling! A heart-pounding wilderness adventure set against a deeply moving personal journey. You’ll cheer Ingrid on every single step of the way."—Teresa Toten, author of The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B

"A gorgeous novel about mothers and daughters, the wilderness that rages both inside and outside of us—and how the past composes the future. Brave, beautiful and so, so compelling."—Caroline Leavitt, author of the New York Times bestsellers Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You
 

From the Publisher

01/01/2017
Gr 8 Up—Setting a coming-of-age story in the framework of an unwelcome wilderness expedition is a bit of a tired conceit, but in Younge-Ullman's outstanding YA novel, a teen's backwoods journey becomes exciting and emotionally engrossing. Ingrid has had an unorthodox upbringing with a single opera star mother who suffers a devastating career loss. After Mom is forced to settle into a more traditional job and life, she is almost completely derailed by deep depression. As part of a mother-daughter deal to find a healthy future for both, Ingrid is sent on a youth wilderness trip. Mostly set in the northern Ontario wilderness, the novel alternates between the "now" of the 21-day trek and the "then" of Ingrid's turbulent adjustment to settled life. Ingrid's never-sent letters to her mother appear throughout the narrative and detail her physical and emotional struggles through attacks of vampirelike mosquitoes and black flies, grueling portages, and much more challenging experiences, including an attempted sexual assault. And while the settings are vividly realized, it's the author's characterization skills that bring this narrative to life. The realistic ending makes it clear that Ingrid will overcome her difficulties and that healing is a journey and not a destination. VERDICT This compelling tale of loss and self-discovery is recommended for most libraries serving teens ages 13-plus.—Susan Riley, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY

School Library Journal

2016-10-19
On a three-week wilderness adventure in Northern Ontario arranged by her mother, Ingrid is tested in unexpected ways.Utterly surprised when the camping trip turns out not to be cabins and day hikes but rugged hiking and canoeing, Ingrid is nonetheless determined to find her "inner Nature Girl" and prove that she's mature enough to spend her senior year at school in London, England. Ingrid punctuates her first-person narrative of the three weeks with journal entries in the form of letters to her mother, in which she sarcastically recounts the daily annoyances of the "shit hole" she finds herself in. The present-day account is interspersed with past-tense chapters detailing a childhood spent traveling around Europe with her mother, a world-famous opera star who stopped performing when Ingrid was 11. The two parts of her life seem strangely juxtaposed, but as Ingrid reflects on what brought her to this moment—the adjustment to public school in Toronto, the bullying, the message from her mother that she had no musical talent, as well as hints of some deeper emotional events—she begins to recognize the strength of character and leadership qualities that lie within her. With just three characters explicitly of color, Ingrid and the novel default to white. Younge-Ullman's subtle approach to narrative pacing allows readers to accompany Ingrid on her journey to fully confront and accept her past as she discovers her own true voice. (Fiction. 13-17)

Kirkus Reviews