Porcupine

by Meg Tilly

Overview

War-torn Afghanistan could not seem farther from Newfoundland, but it is about to change twelve-year-old tomboy Jack Cooper (or Jacqueline, as her mother insists on calling her) forever. When her father is killed in the war, she watches helplessly as her mother crumbles under sorrow and depression. Jack and her younger sister and brother, Tessa and Simon, end up across the country, living on a run-down farm in a small town on the Prairies with a great-grandmother they didn’t know existed. Worried that they will be abandoned again if Gran moves into a retirement home, Jack puts on a brave face and encourages Tessa and Simon to take on the challenges of their new life. In the process, she learns that families come in many different forms and that love, trust, and faith can build a home anywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780887768101
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	09/11/2007
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.49(w) x 7.88(h) x 0.82(d)
Lexile:	730L (what's this?)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Formerly a film actress, Meg Tilly is best known for her roles in The Big Chill and Agnes of God — for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as an Academy Award nomination. Tilly is the author of two adult novels, Singing Songs and Gemma, and is currently at work on her second YA novel, Lucky. She lives in Vancouver, BC, with her family.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Singing Songs:

“Sometimes creativity blesses twice … [A]n impressive first novel.“
— Publishers Weekly

“A masterful novel…. A literary debut of major proportions.“
— Philadelphia Inquirer

Praise for Gemma:

“...Tilly achieves moments of raw beauty and genuine fierceness while sustaining the intensity of a thriller....“
— Booklist

“Tilly ... successfully captures Gemma’s wounded voice.... A haunting tale.“
— Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Tilly, best known for her acting career, enters children's fiction with a poignant although predictable story of three abandoned children finding a new home on a Canadian farm. Narrator Jack (short for Jacqueline) is devastated when the father she idolizes is killed while serving in a Canadian peacekeeping unit in Afghanistan. As bills mount, her deeply shaken mother proves incapable of meeting greater responsibilities, and in an act of desperation, drives the children cross-country to their great-grandmother in Alberta and leaves to start over in the city. It quickly becomes evident that she has no intention of resuming her role in the family, and their grandmother (characterized by Jack as a "mean old bitch") is now their guardian. Jack's unwavering determination to keep up the spirits of her spoiled younger sister and her learning-disabled younger brother will move readers, and her gradual recognition of her mother's self-centeredness and her great-grandmother's love is realistic. But other aspects of the novel, like the symbolic significance of "petting" a porcupine-a trick taught to Jack by her younger brother at the conclusion-feel imposed on the story. Minor characters appear vaguely familiar, reflecting stock personalities. The story has depth, but it's uneven. Ages 10-14. (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Gr 5-8
When Jacqueline Cooper's father is killed in Afghanistan, her mother goes to pieces and takes her three children to live on a farm with a strict great-grandmother they didn't know they had. After she leaves, the 12-year-old makes it her job to keep her family together and safe. What distinguishes this familiar story of super-responsible eldest child and crotchety elderly relative is Jack's appreciation for the world around her. Lyrical first-person passages describe the ocean view from her window in Newfoundland, dust motes in the sunlight, an owl in her grandmother's barn, and the magic of contact with a porcupine in the wild. Reminiscent of Cynthia Voigt's "Tillerman" stories (S & S), this novel has a similarly determined, responsible, but still appealing protagonist and a similarly strong sense of place: in this case, the prairies of Alberta, Canada. In her fierce efforts to make everything OK for her younger brother and sister, Jack becomes almost as prickly as her great-grandmother, and readers will appreciate how her school-slow little brother can help her reveal the softness inside. A very satisfying read.
—Kathleen IsaacsCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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