SAVING FRANCESCA
Melina Marchetta, . . Knopf, $15.95 (243pp) ISBN 978-0-375-82982-6
Sixteen-year-old Francesca's compelling voice will carry readers along during a transitional year in her family and school life. The narrator's vivacious mother falls into a deep depression soon after the teen narrator starts "Year Eleven" at St. Sebastian's, a Sydney boys' school now accepting—but not particularly accommodating to—girls (a teacher refers to the class as "gentlemen"; Francesca describes being outnumbered 750 to 30, as "either living in a fish bowl or like you don't exist"). Slowly, she begins to put down roots at her school, bonding with the girls from St. Stella's (her former school) whom she had considered misfits, and with some unlikely guys. She even finds herself falling for Will, whom she originally called "a stick-in-the-mud moron with no personality." Francesca also lets out her own personality, which she had kept hidden at St. Stella's because of her conceited friends. Her mother's illness takes its toll, though. Marchetta (
Reviewed on: 09/06/2004
Genre: Children's
Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-4000-9075-4
Compact Disc - 6 pages - 978-1-74310-877-2
Hardcover - 335 pages - 978-0-7862-7309-6
Library Binding - 243 pages - 978-0-375-92982-3
MP3 CD - 978-1-4890-8775-1
MP3 CD - 978-1-74311-084-3
Open Ebook - 181 pages - 978-0-307-43371-8
Paperback - 256 pages - 978-0-375-82983-3
Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-74214-332-3
Prebound-Glued - 243 pages - 978-0-7569-6662-1