Jasmine and Maddie by Christine Pakkala (review)

Jasmine’s life has fallen apart since the death of her father, and her mother has decided they need a fresh start in a new town. Since even with her mother working two jobs they can only afford to live a trailer park, Jasmine feels even more helpless, hating the way the other girls in her new school, particularly Maddie, seem to have everything Jasmine covets. Maddie, however, is in the midst of her own crisis. She lives in the shadow of her perfect sister, and when she fails to make the eighth-grade soccer team, she knows it’s only a matter of time until her soccer-obsessed best friend, who was selected for the team, drifts away. The alternating first-person narration highlights the misunderstandings between the girls as they base their judgments on appearances and interpret behaviors through the lenses of their own inner conflicts. Though their circumstances are vastly different, their worries and insecurities prompt them to similar behaviors, namely theft, and their struggles with dishonesty and its aftermath are sensitively portrayed as they learn to approach each other with empathy rather than jealousy. Both girls are budding wordsmiths, so their observations are peppered with witty similes and vivid images, and the poems they share at their teacher’s prompting are heartfelt and lyrical. In the tradition of Frances O’Roark Dowell, Pakkala manages to capture a poignant moment in tween life, when friendships strain and girls are struggling to find their voices and assert their identities. Mistakes and tensions are interlaced with tender moments and liberating laughter, self-protective lies with explosive honesty; this is not girl, interrupted but girl, launched.