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Title details for In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard - Available

In Zanesville

by Jo Ann Beard
Jo Anna Perrin
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

The fourteen-year-old narrator of In Zanesville is a late bloomer; a sidekick, a marching band dropout, a disastrous babysitter, the kind of girl whose Eureka moment is the discovery that 'fudge' can't be said with an English accent. Luckily, she has a best friend with whom she shares the everyday adventures of a 1970s American girlhood. In time, their friendship is tested - by their families' claims on them, by a clique of popular girls who stumble upon them, and by the first, startling, subversive intimations of womanhood. With dry wit and piercing observation, Jo Ann Beard shows us that in the seemingly quiet streets of America's innumerable Zanesvilles is a world of wonders, and that within the souls of the overlooked often burns something radiant.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    April 25, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781611200980
      • File size: 254029 KB
      • Duration: 08:49:13

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      An unnamed first-person protagonist (or is her name Jo?) is navigating the treacherous landscape of a first summer job and the even more perilous world of high school with her best friend Felicia, aka Flea. Sadly, Jo Anna Perrin's flat narration has the listener struggling to engage with the story. She recounts all events in the same emotionless monotone. Whether recounting the horrific abuse a biker dad inflicts on his vexatious son or the 14-year-old narrator's inner battle between loyalty to her best friend and her desire to be part of the high school in-crowd, Perrin's delivery is too clinical--all facts, no feeling. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 7, 2011
      Thirteen years after Beard's acclaimed essay collection, Boys of My Youth, she brings readers this smashing coming-of-age story. It's the 1970s and the novel's unnamed 14-year-old narrator is beginning high school after a summer spent in close company with her best friend, Felicia, as the two babysit an unruly set of six kids—the novel opens with one of the kids setting their house on fire. With freshman year comes realizations that many adolescent girls have faced, some overwhelming, some slight, but all spot-on: marching band is for dorks, boys are confusing, and even the tightest of friendships can fracture when popularity is at stake. Underlying this teenager's turmoil are problems in the grown-up world, such as her father's alcoholism, her mother's abiding unhappiness, and the death of a friend's mother—all things she tries to ignore, but which occasionally boil to the surface. Beard is a faultless chronicler of the young and hopeful; readers couldn't ask for a better guide for a trip through the wilds of adolescence.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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