Kittenpie Reads KidLit

by Natale Ghent

Sue Sioux Smith is your basic teenage nihilist, stumbling through high school and verging on trouble, when she stumbles right into something - someone, really, who makes her open her eyes.

An old woman gets her out of a jam in a case of mistaken identity, but when she runs into her again, it seems that the woman really is confused about who she is. She is not interested in getting involved, but she is a good kid at heart, a kind person, and feels herself compelled to help this woman once she sees how she lives and how vulnerable she is.

She hides what she's doing - it seems a little weird, it's not cool, and she doesn't think people will really understand - until it seems that her new person - friend? project? - needs more help than she can give on her own.

In the end, without being a cheesy happy ending, she finds she's been put in touch with parts of herself that she had pushed aside, and she sees things in a new light. There is no real moral, even the so-called resolution is problematic, but it rings truer than a tidier ending, because what Sioux finds is that life is not so neat, but it's still worth diving in. Helping, too, doesn't always work out like you hoped, but still feels good, and totally worthwhile.

I mean, she even changes her term project from death to helping. Woah.

Labels: 2009, Canadian, friendship, good stuff, growing up, issues, teen