Under the Mermaid Angel [Hardcover]

Martha Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1995 | Age Level: 11 and up

Thirteen-year-old Jesse leads a pretty boring  life in just about the most boring place in the  universe -- otherwise known as Ida, Texas. She cannot  forget the death of her baby brother seven years ago,  and how she just couldn't pray for him when he was  sick. She never talks about it though, not even to  her best friend, which is something she doesn't  have, anyway. But all that changes when Roxanne  moves into the trailer next door. Thirty years old,  with her fake fur coat, wild red hair, and romantic  notions, Roxanne is a revelation to Jesse. Why has  she moved to Ida, of all places? Their growing  friendship will change Jesse's life, giving her back  a vision of hope beyond the mundane world around  her.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thirteen-year-old Jesse Cowan, the narrator of this intermittently witty, often strained first novel, has a point of view that would do one of Bobbie Ann Mason's characters proud. She lives with her parents in a trailer park in Ida, Tex.; paints her toenails Flaming Tomato with her new neighbor and best friend, 30-year-old Roxanne; helps a disfigured but with-it classmate put out a sometimes subversive school newspaper; and hangs out at Mr. Arthur's wax museum ("The main attraction... is the wax replica of the Last Supper. He's only got Jesus and five disciples, though, and they're in pretty bad shape"). As first-novelist Moore barrages the reader with a steady onslaught of consciously quirky details, she unwinds a twisty, imperfectly paced tale. Jesse is haunted by guilt at the relief she felt when a long-languishing infant brother died six years ago, but her feelings begin to heal through her friendship with Roxanne. It emerges that Roxanne has moved to Ida to trace the son she gave up for adoption at birth; the son turns out to be Jesse's nemesis at school. Roxanne persuades Jesse to arrange a meeting, then skips town ("What if I couldn't let go?" she writes to Jesse months later). There's a little too much glorying in the unconventional, and not enough attention to real-life emotions. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-8?Stuffed in a trailer park in Ida, Texas, with two parents and three younger siblings, Jesse, 13, is surrounded by the warm tumult of family life but is too much in touch with an icy core of loneliness. Things seem better when she finds a first best friend in Roxanne, a flashy woman who has moved into the neighboring trailer. Jesse tearfully confides in her that she is sure her refusal to pray for her baby brother's recovery caused his death, and Roxanne talks of her two tragic marriages, of a baby she put up for adoption. Her greatest longing is to see this child, who turns out to be Jesse's very own worst enemy, Franklin, a.k.a. Frankenstein. When Roxanne decides to hold a party in the town's wax museum to honor its owner's departure for a nursing home (and thereby wrangle a dance with her unknowing son), Jesse just doesn't see how she can persuade bratty Franklin to attend. Moore paints an indecorous backroads America in which it seems reasonable enough to hang a mermaid angel above a Last Supper tableau. It is a place in which meager and garish possessions can symbolize great moments of heart; a place peopled with wonderfully flavored, idiosyncratic characters and a small town that finds itself alternately attracted to and repulsed by physical deformity. Through it all, Roxanne reassures Jesse that there are angels everywhere, but we just can't see them. Moore tells a sensitive coming-of-age story tinged with both guilt and humor; but more importantly, she offers expiation.?Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385321600
• ISBN-13: 978-0385321600
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,069,963 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:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Under the Mermaid Angel' spins universal themes, January 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Under the Mermaid Angel (Hardcover)

In a style accessible to children, yet captivating to adults, Mrs. Martha Moore tells her story through the eyes of pragmatic Jessi. Jessi learned while very young that if she never expected anything more than reality, life couldn't hurt her. As a people, we've done a poor job of keeping our hope alive. Parents tell their children to reach for the stars, then tell them to do something practical, something that will assure them security rather than give them a shot at happiness. Jessi's "got the world at her feet"--she's unbeaten, but her clear-eyed view leaves little room for hope.

Jessi's world is filled with people who challenge the system, but none so blatantly as her best friend, 30 year old Roxanne. Roxanne has simply refused to grow up, and in doing so, she's kept her hope alive. It is Roxanne, in all her failings, who teaches Jessi to catch stardust and who, ironically, helps her to grow up.

'Under the Mermaid Angel' is shows us the way to begin again, no matter how horribly we've failed in the past. Read this book, and you'll never look at the sky the same way again. It's absolving.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Under that mermaid angel at the dance, April 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Under the Mermaid Angel (Library Binding)

I read this book when I was twelve. It is still my favorite book. And when I read it, I finished it in 2 days! I couldn't put the book down. It is not tons of adventure on every page but it is soo interesting. I felt connected to Jesse. Well, Jesse feels kinda in a rut in a very boring town (Ida). But when roxanne moves in she changes Jesses life. They become best friends even though the big age difference. I think the climax of the book was when Roxanne wanted to touch Frankenstiens hand at the church and she didn't. I thought it was so sad that she sat next to him but never said or did anything. And he never knew. And that she came all the way to Ida and sat next to him and never told him. Very sad. At the end of the book. I wished that it would go on. I wish Martha Moore would make a sequel. Because I want to know if Frankenstien ever found out about his mother.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book!, June 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Under the Mermaid Angel (Hardcover)

This is a great book. It shows wonderful examples of joy, pain, love, friendship, and sorrow. Roxanne comes into Jesse's life and they become best friends. Roxanne is kind of the outcast of Ida. With her bubbly personality, giant coat, wild red hair, and Liberty Bell tattoo, people look at her as a definate outcast. Roxanne teaches jesse the magic of life and they bond. This is a wonderful book for all ages. a must!!!