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Richie's Picks: JUMP by Elisa Carbone,  Viking, June 2010, 288p., ISBN: 
978-0-670-01185-8  
 
 

"No one bites back as hard on their anger
None of my pain and woe can show through"
Peter Townsend, "Behind Blue Eyes"
 
CRITTER:
 
"Which is more insane?  To go through life:
 
A. Afraid.
B. As an adventurer.
 
"Qu'en es mas loco?
 
A. To think constantly about the past and/or future.   (Note: Past and 
future don't exist.  They are only ideas.)
B. To be aware of and enjoy the here-and-now.  (Note: The  here-and-now is 
the only thing that does exist."
 
Set largely in the breathtaking and perilous world of rock  climbing (one 
of the author's own personal passions) and employing  duel first-person 
narrators, Elisa Carbone has crafted a high-interest  teen adventure tale that 
probes such important issues as  labeling, identity, suicide, mental illness, 
and questions  about whether one should go through life fearful and 
resentful or  boldly focused on living in the present and to the fullest.  That  
the 
author succeeds in addressing these issues in a significant manner  amidst 
a wild, hormone-filled story of a cute teen guy (who has  just escaped from 
a psych ward) and a cute, determined, and  underachieving teen girl (who is 
escaping being exiled to boarding school)  is the reason that this is one of 
the absolute best pieces of  young adult literature I've so far encountered 
this year.
 
P.K.:
 
"There is total, uncomfortable silence.  Then I blurt  out, 'You guys are 
going to follow all the rules laid down on you and you're  going to get into 
college and pay your bills and one day you're going to wake up  and wonder 
why you never just went for it -- why you never lived your  own life instead 
of the life somebody else wanted you to live, why you couldn't  just go on 
one absolutely incredible adventure when you were young and when  someone you 
said was your friend needed you to go.'  I don't even  know what I'm 
saying, don't even know if I believe the words that are coming out  of my mouth, 
but I'm half crying and more than half angry, and then suddenly  there he is, 
standing calmly, no sunglasses, blue eyes looking right at  me.
"'I'll go.'"
 
CRITTER: 
 
"Can I help it if they're the most amazing bunch of idiots  I've ever met?  
I mean, this drop-dead cute girl is actually begging for  someone to run 
away with her, and they've all got better things to do.  Not  that she's a 
damsel in distress -- she's got a stance like a bulldog when she's  angry, 
which she is right now, and all I can do is wait to see if she either  says 
'fine' or slugs me."
 
It is so entertaining how Critter -- who has acquired  some mind-blowing 
perceptual abilities as a byproduct of his  (prior-to-the-story) unsuccessful 
suicide attempt -- can seamlessly move back  and forth in one breath between 
sharing jaw-dropping insights about  life and expressing his oh-so-typical 
teenager  feelings for P.K.     
 
 
P.K.
 
"Critter is looking at me and I can see he is not thinking I'm just some 
PMS-crazed girl (which, okay, maybe I do have PMS  right now) and he's not 
thinking how ugly I look with my nose runny and my eyes  swelled half shut.  
He's looking at me like...he accepts me.  Just  like that, for who I am right 
now."
 
"Remember games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path."
-- Pink Floyd, "Brain Damage"

 
Another question posed by the story is whether one can  manifest one's own 
reality.  Critter often seems to be able to conjure up  what he desires.  
The author understates this aspect of the story,  preventing it from 
overtaking the flow of action and hormones, but it is very  much there.  
 
And there is the profound question about who, underneath, we  really are:  
 
CRITTER: 
 
"'Let's take you, P.K., for example, okay?  You've got:  Five-eleven 
climber, trad leader, athlete-girl clothes, funky rad hair,  intriguing name, 
unsympathetic parents, supersmart, lousy grades, way cute,  don't-mess-with-me 
attitude, miss my brothers, middle-of-the-pack social  status.'
"She laughs.  'I guess that's sort of me in a  nutshell.'
"'No!' I nearly shout it.  'That's not you at all.   That's the stuff 
hanging on your me suit.'
"'But who am I without all that stuff?' she asks,  bewildered.
"'Yes!  That's it.  That's exactly the point,'  I say.  'Who are you 
without all that stuff.'"
 
Between the action and the danger, the hotness factor, the  provocative 
issues, and the stellar writing throughout, JUMP is the sort of  YA novel one 
should easily be able to sell teens on reading  and a book that should 
absolutely be on the table for  discussion when they begin contemplating next 
January's Best Books for  Young Adults Top Ten choices.
 


Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/) 
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator  _http://groups.yahoo.com/middle_school_lit/_ 
(http://groups.yahoo.com/middle_school_lit/) 
Moderator  _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EcolIt/_ 
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EcolIt/)   
_http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php_ 
(http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php) 

FTC  NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he 
 will Pick their books.  You can figure that any review was written  after 
reading and dog-earring a free copy received.  Richie retains these  review 
copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his  booktalks at schools 
and  libraries.


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