A Corner of White
Jaclyn Moriarty
New York: Arthur A. Levine, 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-54539736-0
ARC copy via NetGalley
Jaclyn Moriarty
New York: Arthur A. Levine, 2013.
ISBN: 978-0-54539736-0
ARC copy via NetGalley
Realism and magical realism entwine to make beautiful music
together in this enchanting first book in a planned trilogy by Jaclyn
Moriarty. In two cities populated
by two quirky, endearing, supporting casts, two hugely likeable teenage
protagonists grapple with missing people, life and familial changes,
challenges, and adapting to them.
Serial runaway Madeleine has finally made it permanent by bringing her
mother along. She is struggling to
adapt to her new life, and begins to worry about her mother’s health as she
attempts to complete a home-school history assignment to channel Isaac
Newton. Town golden-boy Elliot,
however, is eager to find his missing father, who disappeared in the same storm
that killed his uncle. He
reluctantly agrees to delay his trip to help his mother prepare to rent his
fathers shop to the strange newcomers to town. Things begin to come together when each teen finds a
mysterious letter, tucked away in an unlikely place, and begin the most unusual
pen pal exchange ever to occur between the Land of Cello, and the world. Playful, yet deeply thoughtful and well
written, this is a unique and delightful novel. Parts epistolary, narrative, fantasy, realism, it abandons
genre and reader expectations and is wholly, whimsically, realistically,
magically fantastic. It is
strongly recommended for both teens (grade 8 and up, but younger readers who
can hang with complex plots with like this too) and adults.
If you couldn’t tell, I maybe kind of really enjoyed this
book. I suspected I would; I have
found Jaclyn Moriarty’s books to consistently be majorly delightful, and was
pumped to have at A Corner of White. You guys – she did not let me
down. In fact, I was so engrossed
that I didn’t realize until about 60 pages that I had no idea how two such
seemingly disparate stories would, or could even come together – and then was
like I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE when she did, in a way that was very true to her
previous books. I won’t say any
more to spoil it though! I will
say that there HAS to be something in the Australian water – yet again I’ve
fallen for the charm from down under!
I took copious post-it notes, while reading this on a bus to
and from Newark, NJ, to hang out with ¾ of the super fabulous Brown family (hi
guys!). Being that my copy came
from NetGalley, this was a slightly weird process, whereby I stuck them all to
the back of my Nook, and now can’t read them, because who writes legibly on a
bus? I’m also pretty sure a bunch
of them fell out…because I swore there were more than four. But I digress.
