Fresh Girl [Hardcover]

Jaira Placide (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2002

Mardi was born in New York, but her parents sent her to Haiti to be raised in her grandmother’s house while they worked. When a coup d’état means 12-year-old Mardi and her sister must flee, they suddenly arrive in Brooklyn to live with parents they hardly know. Now it’s two years later. Mardi has adapted to her new life, while savoring sweet memories of her home in Haiti. But she is also haunted by her secret: a soldier raped her when she fled. This ambitious first novel is an insightful story of how family love and support can heal and help us move from world to world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"In French my name means Tuesday (Mardi)... because I was born on a Tuesday. Thank God it wasn't a Wednesday because then my name would have been Mercredi. In English it sounds like a pain reliever." When it comes to her name, 14-year-old Mardi can joke. It's just the rest of her life that's not so funny. At school she is accused of having "HBO" (Haitian Body Odor) and at home, there is no privacy in the tiny apartment she shares with many assorted family members. And if she strays slightly from her parents' rigid standards of what it means to be a good Haitian girl, she is harshly accused of being "fresh." But Mardi is keeping a terrible secret from her family about things that happened to her during a military coup those last troubled days in Haiti, a secret that makes her sprinkle her bed with rocks to escape the deep slumber of nightmares. And as that secret begins to surface, Mardi must choose to tell and live, or keep silent, while dying inside.

In this challenging debut novel, author Jaira Placide tackles many thorny topics, including sexual harassment, immigrant assimilation, self-mutilation, and rape with a finesse and sensitivity that belies her first-time status. Mardi is a complex character whose joy and pain resonate deeply, mainly due to Placide's ability to maintain Mardi's naive yet cynical voice. With the publication of Fresh Girl, Jaira Placide has released a fresh new voice to the world of teen literature. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

This ambitious first novel traces the coming of age of a 14-year-old Haitian-American girl, forced to grow up too fast. To some kids at school, Mardi seems quite naeve. She wears outdated clothes, spends more time studying than socializing, and is not allowed to stray very far from her Brooklyn apartment. But Mardi knows more about the dangers of the world than most people her age. Placide plants clues along the way to the secret Mardi harbors: while living in Haiti with her grandmother she experienced a life-changing event during the 1991 coup, too horrific and personal to share with anyone, even her family and closest friends. Now, rejoined with her parents in New York, Mardi wants to forget the past and blend in with her American peers. Yet memories of Haiti continue to surface, causing her to feel bitter and to act "fresh." The author peels away the tough exterior of her protagonist layer by layer to expose a frightened and vulnerable young woman who has ambivalent feelings for her loving, yet over-protective mother, the classmates who taunt her and an attractive, unattainable boy. Although several subplots begin and end abruptly (Mardi's friendship with the wealthy Janille, her uncle's relationship to a boy orphaned in the refugee camps, etc.), the heroine's growing courage to voice her unspeakable truth sustains the novel. Ages 12-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books; 1St Edition edition (January 8, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385327536
• ISBN-13: 978-0385327534
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,641,828 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Walk in Their Shoes, February 10, 2002

By 

Laura Lynn Walsh "gt-teacher" (Fairbanks, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fresh Girl (Hardcover)

Mardi is quietly determined to do well in America, even though she is resentful about having to come. The arrival of a "lost" uncle and a boy he is taking care of sets off a string of events that break through the icy core of reserve she has been harboring since her arrival.

This is another book that gives you a better understanding of another culture - or perhaps a deeper understanding of your own. The complex lives of people who have come to America and left their own country are sensitively portrayed here. The central story, although a bit predictable, is told so sympathetically that you can practically feel the individual and separate joys and pains of each person.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Caught Between Two Worlds, January 30, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Fresh Girl (Hardcover)

Fresh Girl by Jaira Placide is a wonderful book that has opened my eyes to the struggles many people face when they are torn between two cultures. This book gives the reader great insight into the life of a young adult who is trying to forget her terrible past and struggling to live her life in a new and different culture. Fresh Girl allows the reader to understand the pain, hate, and saddness that the main character, Mardi, experiences when she moves from Haiti to live in the United States. She left Haiti due to violence and corruption. Her new life in America was supposed to give her a safe and peaceful home to live in. Unfortunatly, her horrific experiences in Haiti and her racist peers will not allow her to have peace in her mind or heart. In order for Mardi to move on in her life she must learn to face her fears and tear down the walls she has built around herself.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great New Voice, March 20, 2002

By 

"nadinen50" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fresh Girl (Hardcover)

Fresh Girl by Jaira Placide is a great debut. The book is about a girl named Mardi Desravines who was born in America, but was raised in Haiti. Mardi comes to America at the height of the Haitian Revolution. Mardi has problems adjusting to the abrupt changes in her once happy and serene life. She is the American who has to learn English. The daughter who doesn't really know her parents. She also holds inside the atrocities she witnessed before coming to America. Jaira's story telling hold its own with the immigrants stories of Edwidge Danticat, Julia Alvarez and Amy Tan. I really enjoyed entering Mardi's world and I think you will too.

I hope you give this young and daring writer a chance.