In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Taylor Before and After by Jennie Englund
  • Deborah Stevenson, Editor
Englund, Jennie Taylor Before and After. Imprint,
2020 [320p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-250-17187-0 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-250-17188-7 $9.99
Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-8

In fall of eighth grade, Taylor was thrilled at becoming friends with cool and stylish Brielle; in winter, she's shunned as "the sister of the boy who erased his friends." Taylor's classroom journal entries, headed by season, alternate between the two timelines, gradually spooling out the full backstory of family (friction between older brother Eli and father, mother suffering from depression) and tragedy (Eli was at the wheel when the jeep crashed, killing two of his friends) and the ongoing saga of Brielle's manipulations and cruelty. Englund writes with delicacy and detail of both Taylor and Taylor's Hawaiian locale, which plays a key role in Eli's passion for surfing at the expense of everything else, and Taylor's subservient compliance with the bullying wishes of Brielle is painfully believable. Less plausible is the in-depth knowledge of Hawaii from recent transplant Taylor, and the extensive details of current news and reality TV events from the 2012 setting bogs the narrative down; additionally, the Eli and Brielle plots fight for air space, when each could have warranted a book on its own. This is nonetheless a thoughtful exploration of a family that breaks at the cracks and gradually reassembles the pieces. [End Page 256]

...

pdf

Share