Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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"It's my life
Don't you forget"
-- No Doubt

"I hear Lily humming. My feet fumble like they have a will of their own, but I try to control them so she won't hear me. I lean close to the wall and peek into the kitchen. Her back is to me. She spends most of her time in the kitchen preparing elaborate dishes, She used to be chief of internal medicine at Boston University Hospital. Father was a resident under her. That is how he met Mother. Lily gave it up. I don't know why. Now her passion is gardening and cooking. It seems that everyone in this house is reinventing themselves and no one is who they once were.
"When she is not in the kitchen cooking, she is out in the greenhouse getting it in order. I can't eat her foods, and I wonder if that is part of the reason she doesn't like me. She clanks pots and then turns on the faucet. I make my move for the front door.
"The hinges on the heavy wooden door squeak when I exit, but she doesn't follow. The sound blends with the clanking pots and rushing water. I have been no farther than the front steps of the house, except for once when it was dark and Mother took me for a short walk to Lily's greenhouse. Mother told me from the start that I must stay close. She is afraid I will get lost.

"Lost adj. 1. No longer known. 2. Unable to find the way. 3. Ruined or destroyed.

"I'm afraid I already am."

From the very beginning of THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX, the story of a girl who has arisen from some sort of comatose state after nearly a year and a half, we can tell that there is something seriously askew, some sort of intense mystery about Jenna Fox to puzzle out.

Are the physical challenges (such as it being necessary for Jenna to consume only tasteless "nutriments") an important clue?

"One day I couldn't walk. The next day I could. One day my right eyelid drooped. The next it didn't. One day my tongue lay like a lump of meat in my mouth, the next day it was articulating words that hadn't been spoken in over a year.
"On the fifth day, when I walked out onto the veranda without stumbling, Mother cried and said, 'It's a miracle. An absolute miracle.' "

Are the memory gaps an important clue?

Jenna recognizes from the beginning that her memory is not normal. She can remember details of the French Revolution but cannot remember if she has ever had a best friend. In fact, she does not even remember her parents or her grandmother Lily. She does not remember her former life across the country in Boston. She is frequently looking up seemingly everyday words she doesn't know the meaning of.

Are the historical facts an important clue?

In the year since the accident, while Jenna has slept dreamlessly through her sixteenth year, "A second woman has been elected president. A twelfth planet has been named in the solar system. The last wild polar bear has died. Headline news that couldn't stir me. I slept through it all." There is also the information about the nine-point quake and its aftermath -- apparently it took place before she was born -- that devastated southern California, where Jenna is now living, and led to unimaginable global consequences.

Are the neighbor and what he reveals important clues?

On the first morning that Mother is away, when Jenna sneaks past Lily and out the door, she encounters the next door neighbor.

" 'Lost?' he says.
"I look back at my house. I look at my hands. I turn them over and examine both sides. My name is Jenna Fox. 'No,' I answer. I step forward.
"He holds out his hand. 'I'm Clayton Bender. You the new neighbor?' He nods toward our house.
"New? What is new to him? Is a year new? 'I'm Jenna Fox. Yes, I live over there.' I reach my hand out to him and we shake.
" 'Your hands are like ice, young lady. You still acclimating?'
"I don't know what that means, but I nod and say yes. 'I saw you from my room. I saw you squatting. You're curious.'
"He laughs and says, 'You mean you're curious.'
" 'My grandmother thinks so.'
"He laughs again and shakes his head. I wonder if laughing is another curious thing about him."

Things get curiouser and curiouser, beginning with Clayton Bender's continuing on to mention his seeing Jenna's family moving in just "a couple of weeks ago," but then immediately drops the subject when Jenna hastily responds that they've been there a lot longer than that.

Who or what is Jenna Fox?

That adolescence is universally a time of reinvention and fear, of feeling lost and feeling alone makes THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX an ultimate futuristic nightmare of a coming of age story.

" 'Pause," I blurt out. 'Back. Pause.' The disc player follows my commands. I look closer at the still picture. 'Zoom.' The thin red line becomes what I suspected. A scar.
"I walk to my bathroom mirror and tilt my face back. I run my fingertips up the length of my throat. I feel. I search.
"There is no scar.
"It's been seven years since that video was filmed. Do scars disappear in seven years?"

Richie Partington, MLIS Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
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