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Summary
Summary
From critically beloved author Lisa Ann Sandell comes this poignant, unputdownable story of a teen girl who learns to shake off her brother's shadow by becoming an artist.
Cora Bradley dreams of escape. Ever since her reckless older brother, Nate, died in a car crash, Cora has felt suffocated by her small town and high school. She seeks solace in drawing beautiful maps, envisioning herself in exotic locales. When Cora begins to fall for Damian, the handsome, brooding boy who was in the car with Nate the night he died, she uncovers her brother's secret artistic life and realizes she had more in common with him than she ever imagined. With stunning lyricism, Sandell weaves a tale of one girl's journey through the redemptive powers of art, friendship, and love.
Author Notes
Lisa Ann Sandell studies sculpture, is re-learning to play the trumpet, and, like Cora, has always found art and writing to be a driving force in her life. She is the author of THE WEIGHT OF THE SKY, which was named one of the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, and SONG OF THE SPARROW, which was a BookSense Summer 2007 pick and which Publishers Weekly called "unique and eloquently wrought" in a starred review. Lisa works as a children's books editor and lives in New York City with her husband, the author Liel Leibovitz, and their dog, Molly. Please visit her online at www.lisaannsandell.com
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-In this contemporary coming-of-age story, 14-year-old Cora is emotionally isolated from her parents following the death of her older brother, Nate. As she begins high school, his absence looms large. His "bad boy" reputation makes mention of him off-limits. Only his best friend and accident survivor, Damian, knows who Nate really was. As Cora becomes his friend in art class, Damian slowly reveals Nate's true passion, character, and plans. But her parents blame Damian for the accident and Cora is forced to keep her newfound understanding a secret. Resolution eventually unfolds in a somewhat predictable but satisfying chain of events. Cora is multifaceted, well developed and appropriately contradictory. Her epiphanies about art being the answer to life's problems are overly dramatic but they do obviate the despair and longing for inner peace that she feels. Unfortunately Damian, the one readers are perhaps most curious about, remains more of an enigma. Sandell's story is richly textured with day-to-day complications including the loss of a best friend to a popular clique, budding romance, a father who is drowning his grief in gin, a suddenly overprotective mother, and Cora's own creative potential. But these complications sometimes distract and slow the pace. This book will appeal to students who have experienced the death of someone close, although the depth of that grief is more keenly presented in Brent Runyon's Maybe (Knopf, 2006) or Katherine Spencer's Saving Grace (Harcourt, 2006).-Sue Lloyd, Franklin High School, Livonia, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Family life comes to an abrupt halt for 14-year-old Cora after the death of her older brother, Nate, in a car accident. Dreading her entrance to high school seven months after the event ("If he had still been alive, I might have had a fighting chance at being able to distance myself from him.... Now I'll be the girl whose brother died") and with her parents lost to their numbing grief, Cora finds sustenance in her passion for maps and mapmaking. A new friend, the encouragement of an art teacher and growing interest in her brother's best friend, Damian, who was in the car when he was killed, all slowly revive her emotional life and self-confidence. Sandell creates a satisfying tension by juxtaposing Cora's grief and anger at her parents with her developing attraction to Damian and her growing sense of possibility about her own future. Sandell's two previous novels were written in verse and, despite occasional emotional editorializing, her fluid phrasing and choice of metaphors give her prose a quiet poetic ambience. Ages 12-up. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Before "The Accident," Cora's family had "fresh-squeezed juice on the weekends" and "went to the Homecoming game every year." But in the months since her brother's death, strict rules have replaced family traditions. Only art and an unlikely friendship help fourteen-year-old Cora break through the heavy darkness. Sandell's poetic descriptions make up for some unconvincing characters and dialogue. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Aspiring cartographerand introvertCora has endured a lot of negative changes in the last four months. Her brother Nate's death in a car accident has torn her family apart. Now she has to start high school as "the girl whose brother died." She's also growing apart from her best friend. There's nowhere for her to escape in her small town, so she fuels her dreams of travel by studying and expanding the world map she has in her bedroom. Advanced Art class is the one place Cora thought she could find refuge, until her brother's best friend, Damian Archer, shows up. Art brings Cora and Damian into a heady romance. It also gives Cora the strength to make herself happy, and to defy her parents in pursuit of learning more about Nate. Cora's voice is often too wise and mature, but the slow pacing accurately portrays the way that a few months in the life of a freshman can seem like eternity. The attractive cover will draw romance readers, who are in for a satisfying read if they can get past the first 50 pages. (Fiction. YA) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Cora nervously begins ninth grade in the shadow of her older brother, Nate, who died six months earlier after crashing his car. Her BFF, Rachel, is more concerned with boys and popularity than with helping her troubled friend, and her parents, lost in their own grief, offer nothing but severe restrictions on her life outside of school. Comfort comes in art class and, surprisingly to Cora (if not to readers), in the friendship of her brother's best friend, Damian, who survived the crash that killed Nate. After Damian shows Cora a secret cache of art that he and Nate were creating, she confronts family secrets and vows to be closer to the people she loves. Cora's artistic talent is evident in her lush descriptions of settings, but the fairly stock secondary characters and the lapses in strong dialogue dull the story's overall palette. Even so, teens will enjoy the tension that builds to Cora and Damian's first kisses and the tidy resolution that has Cora and her family back on track.--Dobrez, Cindy Copyright 2009 Booklist