3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
intrepid eight-year-old explores newfound consciousness, December 4, 2003
This review is from: Mister Posterior and the Genius Child (Paperback)
It is no easy feat the describe and define the onset of self-awareness in a child's life; the task is more difficult when the child's consciousness forms itself in the heady, self-aborbed early 1970s. Emily Jenkins' winning debut novel, "Mister Posterior and the Genuis Child" creates a memorable eight-year-old protagonist in Vanessa, who most endure growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a home where her single mother,Debbie, tries to navigate the currents of consciousness-raising, alternative education and sexual satisfaction. Vanessa's voice rings true; her complex personality invites empathy and her myriad school and home experiences delight, horrify and illuminate. "Posterior" features an impressive, fast-paced narrative which enhances Jenkins' sharply-etched characters and invests their foibles with sympathy instead of disdain.
Vanessa is a sensitive, precocious child who is acutely aware of her marginal status at a progressive, counter-culture, purportedly child-centered school. Chafing at her suddenly obvious differences, Vanessa alternates between rejecting her distinctiveness and embracing it. Upon discovering her status as a scholarship student -- a poor kid from a poor, single-parent family -- and ingesting a classmate's comments on her being different, Vanessa remarks that "it felt like confirmation of something I had known all along."
Her mother, whom Vanessa resolutely calls Debbie, struggles with her own baggage. "The only child of two blisteringly spotless people," Debbie rebels through diet and her own steadfast belief in her daughter's right to be. Debbie repudiates her parents' "veneer of shiny white happiness" as she flails away at her solitary life. Dating a seemingly endless array of losers, Debbie unwittingly increases the velocity of Vanessa's maturation by hiring a babysitter, whose adolescent fixation on boys augments a budding curiosity in Vanessa.
This desire to know, to question leads Vanessa into conflict with quasi-permissive (but secretly manipulative and lazy) teachers whose premise of allowing children to prgress at their own pace runs afoul of their unwillingness to instruct and guide. A member of the "Super Spellers," Vanessa includes explicit sexual vocabulary in a hilarious script she was voluntarily coerced into writing. The episode reveals not only her vivid imagination but also the utter blindness of school authorities to authentic childhood creativity.
Vanessa adamantly refuses to perceive herself as a victim, and this core resiliency carries her through the central crisis of the novel: an exhibitionist whose bare bottom alarms her mother, babysitter and neighborhood but merely amuses her. Vanessa's unflinching belief in herself -- a self defined by imagination, play and discovery -- serves as a model of behavior, not just for children, but for adults as well.
"Mister Posterior and the Genuis Child" is vibrant and engaging. Its author, Emily Jenkins, invests her protagonist with an informed childhood sensibility, one open to hurt and fear, but even more receptive to the wondrous, messy possibilities of life.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The world keeps turning -, July 23, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Mister Posterior and the Genius Child (Paperback)
The world keeps turning through the eyes of this 8 year old whose vision is both quirky and intensely aware. The humor catches us by surprise, the moments of truth are sometimes painful, and there's an undercurrent of willingness to live life fully that buoys up all of it. Emily Jenkins has brought to life characters who are oddly familiar yet have plenty to teach us, naming them with Dickensian accuracy and bouncing them off each other in ways that remind us sometimes of a circus and sometimes of a ballet. Her refined ability to capture the moments that matter and weave them into a story with meaning mark a first novel that will keep you reading.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I can't wait for Emily Jenkin's next book!, May 25, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Mister Posterior and the Genius Child (Paperback)
I loved this book. It can take any reader back to their childhood to remember the little things that you so often forget. The story was original and easy to read. It was a real page turner!!
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