I’m experiencing so much cover love here…I can’t even. It’s so gorgeous.
Thank you Text Publishing for the review-copy! The Minnow by Diana Sweeney hits shelves on May 28th, 2014.
Tom survived a devastating flood that claimed the lives of her sister and parents. Now she lives with Bill in his old shed by the lake. But it’s time to move out—Tom is pregnant with Bill’s baby.
Jonah lets her move in with him. Mrs Peck gives her the Fishmaster Super Series tackle box. Nana is full of gentle good advice and useful sayings.
And in her longing for what is lost, Tom talks to fish: Oscar the carp in the pet shop, little Sarah catfish who might be her sister, an unhelpful turtle in a tank at the maternity ward. And the minnow.
The Minnow is a moving and powerful coming of age story with a whimsical element that belies the heartbreaking truth of grief and loss. Tom is a character you will never forget.
I totally admit! I wanted to read this book because of the swoon-worthy cover. There are other reasons, duh. Like, the blurb is interesting, it’s written by an Aussie author (go us!), and it won the Text Publishing prize in 2013. But I really just love the cover. So…how did my cover-judging go?
Before I launch into my list-tastic review, I do not apologise for the Nemo gifs. The Minnow is about water! Of course I need Nemo to help me review it.
The writing is gosh darn beautiful. I seriously can’t explain how beautiful the writing is. It’s dreamy. And soft. And very artistic. This can also be a downside, if you like writing that dives into events and action. After the explosion of my last read, I had a really relaxing time with The Minnow.
Diversity. Diversity everywhere. There’s a bit of a hue and cry for YA diversity these days. The Minnow fits the list! First of all: teen pregnancy. Then: strong grandparent characters, BFF that STAY friends, looots of sloshy water, and natural disasters. (There’s a flood. Not a spoiler, it says it in the blurb.)
Tom is our narrator and pregnant with Bill’s baby. (Tom is short for Holly…don’t, um…just read the book and find out why.) She’s only 14! This is scary, but quite incredible how it’s written and how Tom reacts. Now I’m not exactly sure how old Bill is, but at one point I think the book indicated that he was fairly old. Ew. Also the police are after Bill. I still don’t understand exactly what for.
Go away, Bill.
Then there’s the Minnow. Ohhh for the love of all things slimy, “the minnow” is what Tom calls the baby while she’s pregnant. It’s so stinkin’ cute!
The minnow sort of “talks”, too…um, okay. Keep up with me, I’ll explain.
There are lots of dead people in this book. I got confused at first, but then I loved it. I’m not sure saying “ghost” is the right way of putting it: but basically Tom is surrounded by the ghosts of her past. They discuss things. It’s really beautiful and really sad. As things are.
Plus the whole book is very wet. I like that. I feel like I just took a swim with the fishes.
And the ending? What. Just. What? I’m not even sure if I mean this in a good or bad way! JUST WHAT HAPPENED THERE?
It should probably be 3-stars, but the writing was just too beautiful and I was too busy swooning over baby Minnow and the cover. So it’s 4-stars. And I LOVE this book.
Cait has always loved the ocean and water and lakes. But not canoeing. She hates canoeing. And also she’s not really good at swimming. She can do a mean dog-paddle though, so watch out. Walking on the beach, though, equals intense awesome. Currently Cait’s admiring her writing boards on Pinterest instead of actually writing. Such is life.
Oooh that cover is BEAUTIFUL and I love Nemo! <3 Okay, now that I got that off my chest, this does sound like an interesting book. Teen pregnancy… and the girl's 14?! Sweet cow, I'm 14. But this does happen in real life, so I'm curious to see how the author dealt with it. I love that squishy GIF too. One of my favorite lines from the movie! 😛
THE COVER. *strokes the cover again* I am unbelievably glad to own this book. x) But yes….eeeh, the teen pregnancy surprised me and kind of scares me. I'm 20 and babysit a LOT, but owning a child? Please no.
"Plus the whole book is very wet." And this is why I love your reviews :PI got approved for this book, but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm worried it got lost in the post! I will get my hands on it somehow. I am a sucker for beautiful writing and characters – I'd rather those be good than the plot, to be honest. I'm reading Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and ohhhh lordyyyy it's so lovely. I can't wait to read this. All of Text's books are so beautiful written. :)(And Nemo is awesome. I love how it fits both the Aussie and the…er, wet theme!)
Oh goodness, it happened again. I have too many profiles for my own good. But it's still me 🙂
Eeeeep. THAT WAS MY FAVOURITE MOMENT TOO. (Wait, can I have favourite moments in my OWN reviews? Mm. Someone better send me to the corner.) Nooo…I hope yours didn't get lost! I think you'll like it. x) And I'm the same as you — characters over plot. It's really, really different , but I enjoyed the change from the norm. Text is AMAZING for beautiful books. Bird…Girl Saves Boy…The Impossible Knife of Memory. I think I've rated ALL their books 4-5 stars.
Sounds interesting! Great review! This book is going on my To Be Read list!Carly
I hope you enjoy it!
coming of age stories aren't exactly my thing but the way you talk about it (plus all the Nemo gifs) makes me want to read it XD anywya, I've never read anything about teen pregnancy so I'll probably check this out (or maybe I'll go see some more reviews just to make sure)..czai @ the Blacksheep Project
I hope you give it a go! I'm definitely more of an epic-fantasy person over a contemporary-person, buuuut, I LOVE a good-written contemporary, or one that's slightly different (or one that's Australian).
Nemo is so cute! (And he's orange, which is our national color. So why aren't we making Nemo our national symbol :)) Plus the Netherlands is the land of water. Should this book be translated in Dutch? :)arendedewit.blogspot.com
YES. Nemo should be your national symobl!! THAT WOULD BE THE BEST. Just remember; fish are friends, not food.
I AM INTRIGUED! Although, Bill sounds like a creepy paedophile who stole her or something, maybe that's why the police want him. This just sounds like a very confusing book and your review gives nothing away. I can't make up my mind but I feel like I want to read it so that I can really understand it. I will have to check if we have this at work.
HE IS A CREEP. Absolutely. I think he maybe traded drugs or something? Or stole something? I think Tom was a little bit un-cluey at times, buuuut, she was a kid. JUST A BABY HERSELF REALLY.
Okay, that is a grand cover 8-D
I love this precious cover. I may or may not have hugged it several times.
This makes me not only happy but very, very hopeful. I've been looking forward to this book since I saw the cover and I'm just ecstatic right now that you have mostly positive feelings for it. I love, love, love dreamy and vivid and artistic writing – the kind that can make everything feel surreal without bordering to purple prose. I won't even mind if there aren't enough dialogue 🙂 I love internal narration in this kind of stuff anyway! Awesome review, love!Faye at The Social Potato Reviews
!!! Strong grandparent characters, you say????? I posted a discussion on my blog about parents and grandparents in YA, mostly just me complaining about the lack of grandparents in YA. So this sounds like something I should definitely read!I'm curious to know why Tom is short for Holly… It sounds like a really confusing book though. I hope I can understand enough of what's going on to like it! Great review; I didn't know about this book before, so I'm glad you alerted me to the existence of it! (:
It sounds like a confusing sort of book, but I'm glad you liked it! It does have an amazing cover. Also, your use of gifs is A+.