Customer Reviews

42 Miles

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I love how each poem can stand on it's own, or strung together tell a larger story. Told in free-verse poems, this short novel explores the feelings of a girl whose parents have been long divorced, hence the "42 miles" that JoEllen must commute between them both.

JoEllen finds her father's move to the countryside tough to navigate, as she is forced to re-arrange her schedule around her divorced parents needs. "Joey" spends countryside weekends with her father cooking, exploring the outdoors and visiting her cousin. During the week, "Ellen" hangs with her friends, orders take-out and lives a totally hip, urban lifestyle. She feels split and conflicted over this. She misses seeing her pals on the weekends, she's tired of having to put on a brave face, and mostly, she's exhausted by the constant effort of censoring herself in front of her parents who each wish to see her as their own little girl, without the influence of the other parent.

Lacking a King Solomon figure to protect her, JoEllen decides to take a stand for herself. She insists that her parents call her by her own full name. She demands that her father respect her own social calendar by not claiming every weekend with her and that he create a more welcoming space for her in his farmhouse. She lets her mother know that she isn't willing to continue pretending to be someone else, or pretend that her father never existed. JoEllen explains her feelings this way, "Mom doesn't see Joey./Dad rarely meets Ellen./And no one ever asked/if that's fine, just fine/with me."

The book is illustrated with various "found" objects and realia. Ephemera such as movie tickets, photographs, advertisements, recipes and ribbons make up a collage that symbolize JoEllen's pieced together life. I cheered for JoEllen when she finally felt empowered enough to stand up to her parents and the school bully, give herself a make-over, and invite both her city and countryside friends to her 13th birthday party. Fans of realistic fiction will enjoy this short, easy read.

Have you been through a divorce and travel back and forth from one parent's house to the other? Have you missed out on fun stuff at one location, only to be in another with the other parent? Do you know a friend who is going through this? JoEllen parents were divorced when she was little so all she has ever known is traveling the 42 miles from one parent's home to another. Now that she is turning 13, she wants more of a "whole" life. Her 13th birthday is a good choice for her independent stand. She wants the fragments of her life to come together. She wants her friends in the city and cousins in the country to meet. She wants her parents to call her the same name. She wants one birthday party with everyone in one place. Sometimes adults get so caught up in why they don't get along that they believe all the arrangements are satisfactory. However, JoEllen points out that this might work for the adults but it doesn't work for her. Two parents and one child. She wants to be heard. She wants to be consulted. The free verse text works really well in the presentation of her independence stand. Reluctant readers will get a lot out of this book. It's short. It has illustrations. It has a new teenager who wants her world to go her way. Good book for a lot of reasons!

JoEllen leads a double life. It's a bit like the old fable about the country mouse and the city mouse. Since her parents divorced long ago, JoEllen has divided her time between her father, who lives in the country, and 42 miles away in the city, where her mother lives.

It isn't just the living arrangements that divide JoEllen's life. She explains that even back when her parents named her they couldn't agree. Her name became part Joseph and part Eleanor - a piece of her father and a part of her mother. The city half of her life consists of girl friends, shopping, and movies while the country half involves horseback riding, fishing, and listening to bluegrass music. Even her friends get confused and can't understand how JoEllen copes.

It's the only life JoEllen has ever really known, but now that she's almost thirteen, she is wondering which life is truly hers. Maybe she isn't either one but perhaps someone completely different.

This short novel written in verse tells of a young girl's struggle to find herself. Surrounded by two loving parents, albeit 42 miles apart, she realizes that neither life truly reflects the person she is inside. Any reader searching for their personal identity will be able to relate to this touching tale.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"