Book review - Picture a Girl

 

Title: Picture a Girl

Author: Jenny Manzer

Genre: verse novel

Similar books: Kyra, Just for Today by Sara Zarr

                      How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C Rudd

Rating:

 

well balanced

Summary (provided by publisher): Addie and her brother, Billy, live with their mom in a shabby rental cabin in the tourist town of Cedarveil, BC, right off the beach. Their lives are a little different than some—they often visit the food bank, and they don't have a phone or TV. For entertainment, their mom tells them stories before bed...if she's in a good mood, or home at all. Sometimes Mama copes with her depression by drinking; sometimes, she just disappears.
When Addie wakes up one Monday, she senses a stillness that tells her Mama's gone again. Addie knows it's up to her to take care of everything until her mom gets back. It's either not let on that anything's amiss or she and Billy will be separated from one another. Once again she makes it through until her mom's return a week later, knowing that she's strong enough to survive alone—but she's hoping this will be the last time.

My opinion: Sometimes, when you get a book about a kid with a neglectful parent, all we see is the bad. We see the way that the parent harms their child, intentional or otherwise, and the child's inability to find their way out. That isn't the case here. We see a kid desperate to keep her family together, certainly, but we also see the positives of their life together. Not just the fact that Addie wants to protect her mom but why she wants that. We see the way that her community comes together to help them while also doing their best to give the kids chances to ask for more help. As a verse novel it's very character driven, digging deep into Addie's feelings and motivation, but the physical events are easy enough to follow.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley