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Summary
Summary
Life for Alex Schrader has never involved girls. He goes to an all-boys prep school and spends most of his time goofing around with his friends. But all that changes the first time he meets Bijou Doucet, a Haitian girl recently relocated to Brooklyn after the earthquake-and he is determined to win her heart. For Bijou, change is the only constant, and she's surprised every day by how different life is in America, especially when a boy asks her out. Alex quickly learns that there are rules when it comes to girls-both in Haitian culture and with his own friends. And Bijou soon learns that she doesn't have to let go of her roots to find joy in her new life.
Told in alternating viewpoints against the vibrant backdrop of Haitian-American culture, Alex and Bijou take their first tender steps toward love in this heartwarming story.
Author Notes
JOSH FARRAR is the author of Rules to Rock By . Josh wrote A Song for Bijou as a kind of love letter to the borough of Brooklyn, New York, where he lives. To research A Song for Bijou , he interviewed Haitians and Haitian Americans in the New York area and took long winter walks in the neighborhood of Flatbush. He also sampled many delicious West Indian dishes, listened to rara music in Prospect Park, and bruised his thumb in a Haitian drumming class.
www.FarrarBooks.com
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Alex never cared very much about girls. Sure he has had them as friends, and has attended the dances where the St. Christopher boys mix and mingle with the St. Catherine's girls. But then he sees beautiful Bijou. She survived the earthquake in Haiti and now, three years later, has moved to New York to live with her aunt and uncle, and her uncle holds to old Haitian traditions of family and propriety. Bijou is to go to school and be a good girl. She isn't to talk to boys who are not related to her. When she and Alex meet, nothing goes as either of them expects. They face the clash of the two cultures and deal with bullies, a video scandal, and major misunderstandings. Bijou deals with multiple themes. There is the awkwardness of first love in middle school, learning about different cultures, the importance of staying loyal to friends even when a girlfriend enters the picture, and remaining true to yourself and what you believe. Even so, the story is well crafted, and the alternating points of view between Bijou and Alex keep it interesting. The bullies are accurate in their cruelty, and the dynamics among the characters are well done. Great for discussion.-Melyssa Kenney, Parkville High School, Baltimore, MD (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this modern-day Romeo and Juliet romance, Farrar (Rules to Rock By) contrasts the cultures of two neighborhoods and two students in Brooklyn, N.Y. Seventh-grader Alex Schrader is smitten when he first lays eyes on Bijou Doucet, the "beautiful girl with butterfly braids" who survived the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and now attends a nearby school. Courting Bijou proves problematic for Alex since Bijou's strict uncle won't let her leave the house unescorted-it takes creative strategizing, help from mutual friends, and breaking household rules for the two to get together. For Alex, getting to know Bijou and the music and culture of her community firsthand are worth the risk; Bijou is less sure. Inevitably, trouble brews when the couple are caught lying to their guardians, and a mean prank carried out by Alex's nemesis also threatens to curtail the blossoming friendship. Although the novel's celebratory conclusion is a little farfetched, Alex and Bijou's narrative voices are distinct and authentic. Readers will admire his heroic traits and sympathize with her conflicting loyalties. Ages 10-14. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
It is as if we live in two different countries: not America and Haiti, but white Flatbush and black Flatbush. They are just as different, and just as far apart," Bijou says of Alex, a fellow Episcopalian school student in Brooklyn. Despite some uneven pacing, Farrar sensitively depicts two mature seventh graders' sweet relationship and their struggles with race- and culture-based bullying. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Surviving middle school and puberty is an age-old challenge that video cameras and YouTube have only complicated, as vividly demonstrated in this enjoyable, seriocomic tale of new love, culture clash, adolescent social stratification and friendship. His obsession with girls has already driven a wedge between seventh-grader Alex Schrader and nerdy pals Nomura and Ira (beware geeks with video cameras) at their Brooklyn, boys-only parochial school. Still, when Alex is smitten with a beautiful Haitian student at their sister school, his loyal, inexperienced posse offers aid and (dubious) advice. Bijou Doucet, who lived through Haiti's horrific earthquake three years earlier, has more on her plate: life with her childless uncle and aunt in a new country whose adolescent culture Bijou's expected to ignore. No academic superstar (he didn't know Haiti was in the West Indies) and burdened with a cello-playing older sister, easygoing Alex cheerfully admits to being talent-free. But love leads him to unexpected places: to Flatbush and Haitian rara music, to discover a talent for drumming, to examine unquestioned values and priorities. Meanwhile, classmates threatened by the disruption of the social pecking order take action. Though Alex's voice is stronger, co-narrator Bijou is sensitively drawn. Farrar handles race and the complexities of interracial relationships by implication, through Alex's discovery of the vibrant, new (to him) world just blocks away. A solid, timely effort. (author's note) (Fiction. 12-15)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Alex Schrader is not the coolest kid in seventh grade. Bijou Doucet has moved to Brooklyn after the terrible earthquakes in Haiti. When Alex meets Bijou, his life begins to change. Bijou has already had a big shift in her life, and, instead of changing herself to be more like her American friends, she shares her music and traditions with them. Soon the kids want to spend more time together, but Bijou's stricter culture makes things tough. Farrar uses Alex's ignorance of the earthquake and life in Haiti to enlighten readers about the tragedy and its continuing effects on the Haitian people. He skillfully intertwines current events and multiculturalism in a story that could easily have been primarily about friendship and first love. Consequently, readers will be as drawn to the relevant content as they are to the delightful characters.--Fort, Bethany Copyright 2010 Booklist