Life as It Comes [Library Binding]

Anne-Laure Bondoux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 13, 2007

Sisters with nothing in common? That's Mado and Patty.

Studious and responsible, 15-year-old Mado is the family brain. Patty, on the other hand, is a carefree 20-year-old party girl who lives on her own and has plenty of boyfriends. The two are following divergent paths . . . until their parents die in a car accident and a family court judge reluctantly appoints Patty as her sister's guardian.

Now these two improbable siblings face the challenges of growing up together—but it's Mado who quickly assumes the big sister's role. And it's not a role she particularly wants—especially after Patty announces that she's several months pregnant. . . .

Anne-Laure Bondoux writes with insight, humor, and poignancy about the bonds between sisters—and the challenges of everyday life.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7–10—After their parents' death, studious 15-year-old Mado becomes the legal ward of her irresponsible 20-year-old sister. Before a year has passed, Patty reveals she is several months pregnant, a development that the sisters hide lest Mado be sent to foster care. Once Mado's exams are finished, they leave Paris to spend August in their family summer home in southern France, where they fall in love with brothers vacationing from Amsterdam. When Patty's baby is born, Mado steps up to provide primary care for mother and infant, but Patty fails to bond with her child, and a week later she abandons him and her sister. When the baby's father shows up and learns of his fatherhood for the first time, he drives Mado and the baby back to Paris, where they find a despondent Patty. After raging arguments, she decides to keep the infant and shared custody is arranged. Mado is a believable if overburdened teen, juggling the anxieties of schoolwork with domestic responsibilities and an unpredictable guardian. Her experience of falling in love for the first time is especially tender and innocent, yet she is also the responsible one who buys a book about pregnancy and childbirth while Patty first denies, then ignores, her pregnancy. Bondoux writes in an engaging style that captures the flavor of life in current-day France. The plot development, however, is jumpy and overly episodic. The ending falls into place too simply and neatly, with little explanation of Patty's transformation from party girl to responsible mother.—Joyce Adams Burner, Hillcrest Library, Prairie Village, KS
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The author of The Killer's Tears (2006), which was named a 2007 Batchelder Honor Book, moves in a very different direction in this sibling story set in France. When Mado and Patty's parents are killed in an automobile accident, the sisters, true opposites, are forced to rely upon each other emotionally and physically. It's a strange situation for both. Twenty-year-old Patty--wild and irresponsible and pregnant--becomes the legal guardian of studious, serious Mado. In truth, the roles are reversed as the girls head off on a long-planned vacation to a house with family history, where they find memories and romance with vacationing Danish brothers. Translated from the French, Bondoux's poignant, often humorous story exposes the differences between European and American middle-class societies. Yet the French backdrop notwithstanding, teens will identify with the sisters, who are determined to stay together as a family and welcome a new baby, and they'll appreciate both girls' struggles to take "life as it comes." Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Library Binding: 224 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (February 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038590391X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385903912
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,009,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing account., July 9, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life as It Comes (Hardcover)

Anne-Laure Bondoux's LIFE AS IT COMES tells of sisters five years apart in age who have nothing in common - until their parents die and twenty-year-old party girl Patty becomes her sister's guardian. Between grief, changing relationships and a baby on the way, the two sisters must confront and grow in very different ways in this absorbing account.

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, August 4, 2007

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life as It Comes (Hardcover)

Mado and Patty are sisters. Now that their parents are gone, killed in a car crash on their way to the family's vacation home, they're the only family they've got. Still, though, they're very different people. LIFE AS IT COMES is about their life together after the accident.

Patty is her younger sister's legal guardian, and they're doing the best they can together. However, life is further complicated when Patty reveals that she is several months pregnant. If the social workers find out, they might put Mado into foster care, not expecting a twenty-year-old to be able to care for a baby and a teenager. But what can they do?

LIFE AS IT COMES is a lovely, sad, hopeful novel about life, loss, love, family, and growing up. The translation from the French is, as far as I can tell, done quite excellently; the writing style flows wonderfully and is completely absorbing. The very well-done relationships of the fully fleshed-out and interesting characters give the story remarkable depth.

This is one that will stay with readers long after the final page.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce