![]() ![]() Rowell has written that versatile, ageless story with which teens will immediately identity, and oldsters will nostalgically recognize: to the final page and beyond, eleanor & park is one empathetic, adroit achievement. Those awkward high school moments (decades later, why are they still so familiar?) are all in here, interspersed through an incongruously gorgeous love affair of swooning proportions. ![]() Get ready to sigh and snicker, cringe and cry. Rowell captures the snowball effect of anxiety on the thought process when Cath is unable to pause to answer any of the questions she poses. But first love is never easy, especially when families – both inadvertently and intentionally – stand in the way. Eleanor, the neighborhood newbie with the wild red hair and never-matching outfits, gets stuck sitting next to Park on the bus. She’s just been reunited with her mother and younger siblings, and must navigate through a crowded, unsettling new life trying to stay out of the way of her unpredictable stepfather-from-hell.Īfter a less-than-friendly start for the two forced-together seatmates, comic books – don’t ever let anyone tell you manga isn’t romance-inducing! – bring the odd couple together. Readers cant get enough of her wide array of writing, from her adult and YA novels, including Carry On, and its sequel Wayward Son, and Eleanor & Park, to her. Park, the local, is hapa Korean, gets embarrassed by his parents’ neverending displays of affection, loves punk rock, and used to date the school’s hottest girl back in middle school. In 1986 Omaha, Nebraska, two very different 16-year-olds are about to fall in love for the first time in their young lives. And for those of you going aural, let me assure you that Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra take turns narrating this unlikely romance into heart-thumping, hand-wringing, convincing real life. Wow, I sort of wondered … but now I don’t need to anymore, because author Rainbow Rowell has already answered a question ( the question for certain readers like me?) that I hadn’t even gotten around to formulating just yet: “ Why is Park Korean?” No spoilers here … you’ll have to read the book, then the post (preferably in that order), for yourself. In case you need more prodding to start already, here’s another recent affirming reason: eleanor & park just won the 2013 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (one of the most prestigious kiddie book recognitions) for Fiction. ![]()
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