Up a Creek
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A thoughtful coming-of-age novel about a young woman struggling to connect with her eccentric mother.
"I picked up my poster, raising it so everyone could see that if they chopped down these old oak trees, they'd be killing the South as well. I held it high like I meant it, and I walked around Oak Square forty-six more times that day, till all that was left of the sun was a buttery smear in the sky."
Miracle Bott's activism is a constant embarrassment to her thirteen year old daughter, Starshine. Why does Miracle spend all her time fighting causes? And how can Starshine's grandmother remain so supportive? After all, the 60's were a long time ago.
First Miracle tries to save the whales, then the ozone layer, and now it's the old oak trees in the town square. But when Miracle decides to protect one of the oaks by living in it, she may have gone too far--too far for the mayor, the community, and especially her daughter. Now Starshine must find a way to make Miracle come down from the tree before their relationship becomes a lost cause.
In her warm, evocative style, Laura Williams explores the relationships between three generations of women struggling to find connections.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Williams's (Torch Fishing with the Sun) novel, set in contemporary small-town Louisiana, stars 13-year-old Starshine Bott and her 1960s-holdover mother, Miracle. As pivotal events take place in Starshine's home (she menstruates for the first time; her grandmother, Memaw, is hospitalized for heatstroke; the heroine inquires about her father's identity), Miracle refuses to come down from an oak tree in which she has taken up residence to protest the town council's plans to cut the old trees down. The author takes on momentous issues with mixed results. Some of the plot development may stretch readers' credibility; several of the supporting characters are not fully fleshed out--including Miracle--so their exchanges with Starshine lack weight. Likable, feisty Memaw supports Miracle's actions as part of the family's legacy of stubborn resiliency--but the oft-mentioned tradition is never explicated. However, Starshine's narrative rings true: "I often had the feeling my mama forgot she had a daughter named Starshine, of all things, in middle school. And no one knew better how to make fun of somebody who had a weird name and a weirder mother than a kid in middle school." Ultimately, when Miracle's fall from the tree threatens her campaign, Starshine takes up the cause in an ending that may well prompt budding environmentalists to cheer first and fill in the gaps later. Ages 10-up.
