Lisa Jahn-Clough
Author of My Friend and I (Little Big Book)
About the Author
Series
Works by Lisa Jahn-Clough
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Hampshire College (BA)
Emerson College (MFA) - Occupations
- associate professor (Rowan University)
- Short biography
- [from author's website]
Lisa earned a BA from Hampshire College and an MFA from Emerson College and has been writing, publishing, and teaching ever since. She has taught at Emerson College, Maine College of Art, Vermont College of Fine Arts and Hamline University. She is now a tenured Associate Professor at Rowan University. Lisa also speaks to hundreds of elementary, middle and high school students and teachers as a visiting author. She lives with her husband and their two dogs in Portland, Maine in a little yellow house in the summer, and across from a cornfield in southern New Jersey in the winter. - Places of residence
- Portland, Maine, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Maine, USA
Members
Reviews
The fallout from an accident that killed Penelope's baby brother when she was six comes to a full bore as a teenage Penelope wrestles with her needs to be independent; to be loved by a boy; to have sex; and to get away from high school, her mother and the secret about the accident she's borne all her life. The solutions she seeks are never quite right until she finally opens up about the accident to her best friend Toad and her mother. Penelope's angst is well-drawn and felt. Lib notes: show more pot-smoking and alcohol scenes, Penelope's sexual fantasies. show less
It seems like everybody is jumping on the easy reader comic bandwagon these days, even people who really, really should not be trying this format. I saw this book reviewed in a publication and my first thought was "do I really need another odd couple easy reader series? No, I do not." But my second thought was, well, summer is coming and my easy reader circulation is going to double or triple, so I'll take a look.
Petal is an elephant who worries and practices the tuba. Poppy is show more a...rhinoceros I guess, who likes to go on adventures and does not like the tuba. Petal gets so worried when Poppy goes scuba diving that she goes with her. When Poppy gets lost, Petal's tuba helps her find her way and when Petal jumps in the water to save her, Poppy rescues Petal from drowning.
The story is illustrated in large, clearly defined comic panels. Briant's art is colorful and detailed and shows the two friends and their very different personalities in their clothes, activities, and expressions.
The problem is, the story doesn't really make sense. We start with Petal and Poppy on different levels in their lighthouse, one playing the tuba and the other getting ready to go scuba-diving. Then, suddenly, they're on the same floor talking together. While Poppy is diving, a storm comes up (my first thought was it was caused by the tuba playing) and when she gets to the surface there's fog and she can't find the boat. I am the farthest thing imaginable from a diver, but I'm pretty sure that scuba divers don't go deep enough not to notice disturbances on the surface? While Poppy hears the tuba and starts swimming towards it, Petal determines to save her friend and says "Banzai?" as she leaps into the water....but apparently she can't swim. Meanwhile, the storm has apparently disappeared as suddenly as it came up and the water is flat as glass again.
Verdict: It's not a bad story and I'm probably being overly critical of things most kids wouldn't notice, but I am soooo tired of the odd couple genre and while the art in this is attractive, the story isn't at all what I'd want to give to beginning readers who need clear, simple plots to follow while they're decoding the words.
ISBN: 9780544114777; Published 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less
Petal is an elephant who worries and practices the tuba. Poppy is show more a...rhinoceros I guess, who likes to go on adventures and does not like the tuba. Petal gets so worried when Poppy goes scuba diving that she goes with her. When Poppy gets lost, Petal's tuba helps her find her way and when Petal jumps in the water to save her, Poppy rescues Petal from drowning.
The story is illustrated in large, clearly defined comic panels. Briant's art is colorful and detailed and shows the two friends and their very different personalities in their clothes, activities, and expressions.
The problem is, the story doesn't really make sense. We start with Petal and Poppy on different levels in their lighthouse, one playing the tuba and the other getting ready to go scuba-diving. Then, suddenly, they're on the same floor talking together. While Poppy is diving, a storm comes up (my first thought was it was caused by the tuba playing) and when she gets to the surface there's fog and she can't find the boat. I am the farthest thing imaginable from a diver, but I'm pretty sure that scuba divers don't go deep enough not to notice disturbances on the surface? While Poppy hears the tuba and starts swimming towards it, Petal determines to save her friend and says "Banzai?" as she leaps into the water....but apparently she can't swim. Meanwhile, the storm has apparently disappeared as suddenly as it came up and the water is flat as glass again.
Verdict: It's not a bad story and I'm probably being overly critical of things most kids wouldn't notice, but I am soooo tired of the odd couple genre and while the art in this is attractive, the story isn't at all what I'd want to give to beginning readers who need clear, simple plots to follow while they're decoding the words.
ISBN: 9780544114777; Published 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less
As an adult reading a book geared towards young adults, it's hard to really understand how a teenager will view this book. The language seems simplistic and generalized, but that may well be appropriate for the intended age group.
However, the first half of the book does seem especially casual, almost geared towards pre-teens. The life of Phoebe, a simple country girl, is described, and her gradual awakening by the arrival a new friend, Melita.
Once Melita encouraged Phoebe to come visit her show more in the city, the book takes on a story and language geared towards older teenagers. Themes of discovering one's sexuality, feminism, and complex friendships are explored. All are great topics to be weaving into an entertaining story, but it would have been nice for these themes to be introduced sooner and examined a bit more. As it is, they are rushed and hurried into the last half of the story.
Overall, this is a nice little book for teenagers to read. Both gay and straight teens will benefit from reading a story of a young woman trying to figure out how her sexuality fits, or doesn't fit, within the norms found around her. The slim book allows for an easy reading that is entertaining and informative. show less
However, the first half of the book does seem especially casual, almost geared towards pre-teens. The life of Phoebe, a simple country girl, is described, and her gradual awakening by the arrival a new friend, Melita.
Once Melita encouraged Phoebe to come visit her show more in the city, the book takes on a story and language geared towards older teenagers. Themes of discovering one's sexuality, feminism, and complex friendships are explored. All are great topics to be weaving into an entertaining story, but it would have been nice for these themes to be introduced sooner and examined a bit more. As it is, they are rushed and hurried into the last half of the story.
Overall, this is a nice little book for teenagers to read. Both gay and straight teens will benefit from reading a story of a young woman trying to figure out how her sexuality fits, or doesn't fit, within the norms found around her. The slim book allows for an easy reading that is entertaining and informative. show less
In the beginning of the book, Alicia has trouble picking her best friend. She has five different friends who are all good at different things. She decides by the end of the book she will be friends with all of them because when she chose one friend over another she missed the other four. The lesson in the book is that it is okay to be friends with more than one person. I recommend reading this book to all ages and would also be a good book for the beginning of the year. Students will often show more form friendships in the beginning of the school year and this book will help they understand your can have more than one friend. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 19
- Members
- 736
- Popularity
- #34,514
- Rating
- 3.2
- Reviews
- 16
- ISBNs
- 73