Amazon.com Review
While most teens feel like a "freak" at some point during their adolescence, author Randall Beth Platt has taken that emotion to the extreme and created a character whose strangeness isn't just a feeling, but a physical fact. Fourteen-year-old Cordelia wears her freakiness all over her face--she's a half-Caucasian, half-Chinese albino. "I used to wonder if it was because my mother was yellow with black hair, and my father was white with red hair, that I came out albino--without any color at all..." It is 1918, and Cordy's family lives in an isolated logging camp in the Pacific Northwest where most of the lumberjacks are used to her odd coloring. But when handsome Squirl joins the crew, he is fascinated by Cordy, and she by him. When Squirl is fired and leaves for Seattle, Cordy, completely smitten, runs away to join him. Once there, she learns that her appearance can turn a profit, and, after much cajoling by Squirl, joins "Dr. Ridenour's Carnival of Mystic Delights." But even as she enjoys fame and fortune, Cordy is troubled by Squirl's waning affection, and learns a shocking secret about her family that could change her life forever.
The Likes of Me is a truly original teenage angst story. Cordelia's unusual exterior only emphasizes her adolescent insecurity, making her the perfect sympathetic heroine for most teenaged girls. Platt's fresh take on a young girl's coming of age will leave teen readers with the knowledge that being different is nothing to be ashamed of, and that it can even be a source of great personal pride. (Ages 12 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert
From Publishers Weekly
The narrator of Platt's (Honor Bright) unconventional historical novel is 14-year-old Cordelia Lu Hankins, a comic na?f in a tall tale setting. A half-Caucasian, half-Chinese albino, Cordy lives in a Washington State lumber camp in 1918 with her widowed, reserved father. The arrival of two outsiders change Cordy's life: the terrifyingly gruff six-foot-ten 350-pound Babe, whom her father marries ("They called her Babe because she was strong as an ox--Paul Bunyan's blue ox, to be exact"); and a handsome, dangerously charming "half-breed" log-boomer and con man, Squirl, who hails from Seattle. A hilarious episode ending in Cordy's first kiss gets Squirl fired and sets Cordy packing. Disguised as a widow, she runs away to the infamous Cousin Sally's in the seedy Luna Park section of Seattle, which she has heard Squirl mention. The Seattle scenes lack the pacing and clever details of the logging camp, but the eccentric cast is finely sketched from start to finish. Cordy's plucky transformation is convincing, and while readers may not be surprised to discover Babe's past, they will likely cheer when Cordy intercedes before Squirl can exploit Babe's secret for reward money. The evolution of Cordy and her stepmother's relationship from adversarial to affectionate is a bit abrupt, but ultimately this is a satisfying story of self-acceptance. Ages 14-up. (Feb.)
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