A Certain Strain of Peculiar [Hardcover]

Gigi Amateau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2009

This is the last time Mary Harold will have a panic attack at school when kids call her "the grossest girl." If Mom won’t move back to Alabama, her thirteen-year-old daughter will just have to drive herself 691 miles to Grandma Ayma’s farmhouse — and a whole new life. With Ayma’s loving support, Mary Harold is soon strong enough to help Bud, the Cherokee farm manager, wrangle the cows, and confident enough to stand up for his daughter, Dixie, a girl with a strain of peculiar that makes her whinny and stamp like a horse to keep the world at bay. Mary Harold still misses her mom, but has started to have dreams of the Black Warrior Forest that are offering clues. As she listens to their message, and to her own heart, she discovers how powerful and surprising the bonds of family can be.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This unusual, sensitive story joins the growing list of YA titles featuring strong, influential grandmothers and older women. Fed up after being harassed and bullied at school, 13-year-old Mary hops in her mother’s old truck and drives from her Virginia home to her grandmother’s cattle farm in Alabama, where she knows she can be herself, even if that self is “a certain strain of peculiar.” Welcoming her are the farm’s manager, Bud, and his own peculiar children: mean and destructive Delta, and Dixie, who prefers neighing and cantering to human forms of communication. It is her grandmother’s nurturing that helps Mary learn that running away solves few problems. Amateau’s strong, deftly drawn, eccentric characters, combined with the idyllic rural setting, add depth to the familiar story of a teen’s gradual path to self-acceptance. Offer this to young teens who see themselves as outsiders and to those who love the peculiar among us. Grades 6-9. --Frances Bradburn

About the Author

Gigi Amateau is the author of Chancey of the Maury River and Claiming Georgia Tate. She lives in Richmond, Virginia.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (April 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763630098
• ISBN-13: 978-0763630096
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,928,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gigi Amateau is the author of the young adult novel, A Certain Strain of Peculiar (Candlewick Press, 2009), and the middle-grade novel, Chancey of the Maury River (Candlewick Press, 2008). Her debut young adult novel, Claiming Georgia Tate (Candlewick Press, 2005), was selected as a Book Sense Children's Pick, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and a VOYA Review Editor's Choice. She also contributed to the acclaimed anthology, Our White House: Looking In Looking Out (Candlewick Press, 2008). Gigi is a native of Mississippi. She grew up in Mechanicsville, VA and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in Urban Studies and Planning. She lives in the city of Richmond, VA with her husband and daughter

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Readers Will Definitely Want To Keep A Close Eye On This Talented Writer, June 3, 2009

By 

Teenreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Certain Strain of Peculiar (Hardcover)

Thirteen-year-old Mary Harold Woods lies at the bottom of her school's pecking order, getting kicked in the heart with cruel insults and every other kind of verbal abuse her classmates can invent. Even her ex-best friend joins the massacre. Mary can never seem to find the strength to fight back, instead turning inward to hide. It doesn't help when the panic attacks dominate her mind and body; she can't breathe, and fear desperately takes control. Mary begs her mother to move in with her grandmother, Ayma, who lives on Wren Mountain in Alabama. But her mother refuses to live there again. So Mary takes matters into her own hands.

Slipping out in the middle of the night, Mary takes the old truck and drives herself the 600-plus miles to her grandmother's farm. Her mother gives in and decides she can give it a try, with a few conditions of course. One is that Mary must have her own cow to care for, to which she readily agrees. So the following day, the farm manager and next-door neighbor, Bud, buys Mary her first cow. Helping Bud on the farm is the start of a new feeling of belonging for Mary. She begins to build up both an outer and inner strength that helps her blossom for the first time in forever.

Mary even finds a new best friend. Bud's daughter, Dixie, is two years younger, and is a bit different in that she acts like a horse. Ever since Dixie's mom left, Dixie refuses to speak English, and instead neighs and paws the ground. But Mary accepts Dixie for who she is, and vice-versa. The summer glides along peacefully, and Mary begins to heal. But then school starts.

Although the other kids seem content to leave Mary alone at first, they do torment Dixie unendingly. Mary decides she won't hide any longer and stands up to protect Dixie. The bullies pull her into a fistfight, and Mary gets suspended. She struggles to find peace within herself and in the community, and to make the right choices; hiding doesn't work, but neither does fighting. She must find a way to love herself before she loses herself completely.

Gigi Amateau is the person responsible for this tender and heart-touching novel (with a bit of help from her editors and publisher). Right from page one, Amateau reaches out and bonds with the reader, sharing the pain of trying to accept oneself and find acceptance in the community. It is easy to believe in and relate to Mary and the other colorful characters. Amateau imparts the importance of building a support group with friends and family, to get through the tough times and to share in the good ones. She also does an amazing job of sharing nature's beauty and peace with her audience, and captures the spirit of small town living, where everyone knows everyone's business, creating a bit of humor in the story.

Readers will definitely want to keep a close eye on this talented writer, whose previous books include CHANCEY OF THE MAURY RIVER and CLAIMING GEORGIA TATE.

--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of FINDING MY LIGHT, GHOSTS OF THE UPPER PENINSULA and THE BLACK POND

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Coming of Age Story, May 11, 2009

By 

samanthadootlebug (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Certain Strain of Peculiar (Hardcover)

I would whole-heartedly recommend the book "A Certain Strain of Peculiar", by Gigi Amateau. It is especially suited for preteen and younger teenaged girls. However, I am an adult in my mid-thirties and I still enjoyed it. It is a coming-of-age story, but doesn't necessarily come off that way. What I mean by that is the author creates an interesting enough story that it doesn't fit into the cliché coming-of-age genre.

The story is about a 13-year old girl, Mary, who has been mercilessly teased and taunted at school. She has dealt with this peer abuse by withdrawing into herself and suffers from panic attacks. It is a realistic look at how cruel kids can be. As the school year ends, she tries to convince her mom to move back to her mom's home town to live with her Ayma (grandmother). When her mother refuses to consider it, Mary takes matters into her own hands and runs away.

The summer she spends with her Ayma is a summer of healing. Not everything that happens is good, but Mary is able to reinvent herself, without the stigma of her past. It is a novel about that self-discovery. I especially enjoyed the book because it was not always predictable. I am glad that I took the time to read this book and suggest for the teenaged girl as well as some adults.

3.0 out of 5 stars Editor needed, February 9, 2010

By 

M. Fuka "K-12 Librarian" (North Dakota) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Certain Strain of Peculiar (Hardcover)

Could have been a light sweet story of a single mom & daughter moving "home". Unfortunately, the book gets weird and gets weird often. I would hope an experienced editor would have guided Ms. Amateau to a better finished product.