Hippie Chick (review)

The Florida Keys have been Lolly’s lifelong home, and the fifteen-year-old is a confident sailor, regularly taking out her boat, the Mugwump, on her own. One evening that reliable pleasure turns into disaster, however, when Lolly’s out on the ocean and her boat tips; as she tries to sort the situation, the boom smacks her into unconsciousness, and when she awakens, floating in her life jacket, she’s miles away from anywhere. All that stands between her and eventual death by exhaustion and predation is a trio of manatees swimming by. Lolly grabs onto one, and she’s towed to an isolated island, where the manatees feed and she tries to alert searchers, but ultimately she realizes that she’s beyond rescue there, so she turns once again to the manatees for help. The plot elements are classic survival story, but Monninger, author of Baby (BCCB 9/07), transforms the survival narrative into a quiet paean to the joy of existence. Lolly’s narration is contemplative yet matter-of-fact, describing her experience from a later vantage point that allows her to disclaim sentimental takes on her animal encounter (“People . . . wanted the Lassie part. The girl and her dog part”) but still maintaining a shimmering fluidity, touched with the kind of otherworldly remove that can come from the marginalization of daily realities and solid ground. The book adroitly splices earthbound existence to Lolly’s more sublime adventure without losing the special characteristics of either, and Lolly’s worried mother and devoted if ostensibly unsuitable boyfriend are solid supporting characters with their own individuality. With an underlying message about the human damage to the ecosystem (the author includes a note about manatees), this is a startlingly vivid depiction of its setting and an evocative tribute to a kind of survival that’s more than just knot-tying skills.