Rowell, R., & St. Martin's Griffin (Firm).
(2013). Eleanor & Park.
Summary: Eleanor is the new girl in school with
big red hair and quirky style of dress, waiting to find a place to sit on the
bus. Park is a quiet half-white/half-Korean punk kid who dares to have her sit
next to him just so she won’t socially flounder on her first day on the bus.
Through this chance seating arrangement begins a young love between two awkward
and misfit teenagers in 1986 complete with the music of the time. Amidst the
complications of teenage emotions, family and circumstance, Eleanor and Park
struggle to stay together and make their young love last forever.
Response: I fell in love with Eleanor and Park’s
love in reading this book. I felt as if I was transported back to high school
when peer opinion mattered so much, when everyone was very self-conscious and wary
of their own appearance. The structure of the novel alternating through the
perceptions of Eleanor and Park give us a full view of the complications of
teenage lives. I felt that I could easily have known both of them as people in
my young life and would have been surprised by all of the dramas that
surrounded their life experiences.
Reviews:
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Mar. 2013. 320p.
St. Martin's/Griffin, Gr. 9-12.
Right from the
start of this tender debut, readers can almost hear the clock winding down on Eleanor and Park. After a less than auspicious start, the pair quietly builds
a relationship while riding the bus to school every day, wordlessly sharing
comics and eventually music on the commute. Their worlds couldn't be more
different. Park's family is idyllic: his Vietnam vet father and Korean
immigrant mother are genuinely loving. Meanwhile, Eleanor and her younger siblings live in poverty under the
constant threat of Richie, their abusive and controlling stepfather, while
their mother inexplicably caters to his whims. The couple's personal battles
are also dark mirror images. Park
struggles with the realities of failing for the school outcast; in one of the
more subtle explorations of race and "the other" in recent YA
fiction, he clashes with his father over the definition of manhood. Eleanor's
fight is much more external, learning to trust her feelings about Park and navigating the sexual threat
in Richie's watchful gaze. In rapidly alternating narrative voices, Eleanor and Park try to express their all-consuming love. "You make me
feel like a cannibal," Eleanor
says. The pure, fear-laced, yet steadily maturing relationship they develop is
urgent, moving, and, of course, heartbreaking, too.--Courtney Jones
Jones, C. (2013,
January 1). Eleanor & Park. Booklist, 109(9-10), 98.
Program: Have a
display for teens regarding trouble home life. Include non-fiction books and
Realistic Fiction books representing these issues, such as Eleanor & Park. If possible have a safe-space discussion group
for teens regarding these issues led by a professional in social services.
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