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Children's Fiction Friendship

Apart /hc

by (author) Rod MacIntyre & Wendy MacIntyre

Publisher
Groundwood Books Ltd
Initial publish date
Sep 2007
Category
Friendship, Special Needs, Parents
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780888997500
    Publish Date
    Sep 2007
    List Price
    $18.95

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Where to buy it

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels

  • Grade: p to 12
  • Reading age: 0

Description

Jessica, a serious, bookish sixteen-year-old from New Brunswick, places a Personals ad in the Globe and Mail. She is looking for her father, a drug-dealing philanderer who has recently taken off with the local hairdresser. Seventeen-year-old Sween -- an authority-defying drop-out from northern Saskatchewan -- responds. Over time they establish an intense but long-distance relationship in which they provide each other with advice and support as Jessica finds herself attracted to one of her father's biker friends, and Sween suffers a nervous breakdown after fending for himself in a cabin in the bush. Eventually, Sween travels east to help Jess stop her father from putting her autistic brother Timmy in an institution. The resulting encounter is a surprise to them both as they find reality at odds with the images they have of each other.

About the authors

Rod MacIntyre lives and writes in northern Saskatchewan. His award-winning young adult fiction includes Feeding at Nine, Yuletide Blues, The Blue Camaro and The Crying Jesus.

Rod MacIntyre's profile page

Wendy MacIntyre lives in Ottawa where she works as a freelance writer and editor. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland and has a Ph.D. in English Literature (University of Edinburgh). She has published scholarly essays and short fiction in journals in Canada, the United States, and Britain, including in the University of Windsor Review and the Malahat Review. Her novels are Mairi (Oolichan Books), The Applecross Spell (XYZ Publishing), and Apart (Groundwood Books), a young adult novel co-authored with award-winning Saskatchewan writer R.P. MacIntyre. Apart was named one of the 10 best picks for young adult fiction for 2007 by the Ontario Library Association and a 2008 Starred Selection Best Books for Kids and Teens by the Canadian Children's Book Centre.

Wendy MacIntyre's profile page

Awards

  • Commended, CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens (Starred Selection)
  • Commended, OLA Best Bets - Reading for Young Adults (Fiction)

Editorial Reviews

...a memorable and outstanding read...This is a thoughtful, engaging narrative that will undoubtedly speak to more mature young adult readers.

CM Magazine

The authors of this 'novel-in-letters' capture teen angst and growth...The double author format allows the reader to become intimately acquainted with both Jessica and Sween, so different from each other and yet so similar in many ways.

Resource Links

Librarian Reviews

Apart

Jessica places a personals ad in the newspaper in a desperate attempt to find her father. From the other side of the country, a boy named Sween replies. Through letters, a deepening friendship grows between them.

Source: The Canadian Children’s Book Centre. Best Books for Kids & Teens. 2008.

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