Book Review by Elizabeth Chambers
I was recently given a copy of the novel Encore Edie by Annabel Lyon aptly labelled Juvenile Fiction ages 9 12. It was a quick read, and I was more than halfway done after a two-hour ride home. After getting the kids to bed and settling the baby down for the night, I picked up this slim novel again and finished it off. After closing the last page though, I could not put the story out of my mind. I could not tell how I felt about the main character and if her story truly felt realistic or not.
The novel Encore Edie is Lyons second novel about the main character Edie, and her fifth novel to date. In this novel Edie seems to be going through a huge transition in life as she is going from elementary school to High School. She finds herself a social outcast both at school, and many a time at home as well. She clashes with her popular and lovely elder sister Dexter, and is trying to figure out how she feels about her cousin Merry, who has Down Syndrome. Edie tries to find her own identity as she deals with trying to be accepted at school, taking on the pressures of writing, organizing and directing the school musical, and trying to adjust to the fact that her best male friend is now her sisters boy friend.
This story holds a tremendous amount of issues for a young girl starting out in High School and is definitely focussed on her perspective. You are given hints as to what others are thinking or why they are doing things, but until everything is revealed to the main character, you are not truly sure and are feeling pretty much how Edie would be feeling. There is a wonderful lesson on empathy that is found in this novel, a lesson that is too often not learned by many. If we are going to shy away from such great literature as To Kill a Mockingbird for our young adults, perhaps we can find a way to teach them how to walk around in another persons shoes with issues each High Schooler will inadvertently face at one point, bullying, relationship angst with members of the other sex, and with your own parents, social pressures, and for many the tremendous amount of pressure one puts upon themselves!
Encore Edie
