The Key to the Golden Firebird

Sisters May, Brooks and Palmer returned home one afternoon to find that their father has passed away from a heart attack in his beloved Firebird. One year later, each of them are dealing with the death in a different way – no way of which is particularly heathy.

May is finding things especially hard as the middle sister. She believes that her father never loved her like her other sisters because she didn’t play baseball. She failed her driving test – and the only person available to teach her is Pete, the boy she has had a long-time rivalry with. She works with the girl Pete is now dating, and has to listen to all the dirty details. She has to take care of her younger sister, and do the chores her older sister doesn’t want feel show more she has to do.

What the sisters have found out is that the keys to their father’s Firebird are also the keys to their own healing. (Ignore how cheesy that sounds. Really.)

The Response
MAUREEN JOHNSON I NEED YOU TO HAVE MORE BOOKS PUBLISHED. NEED MORE BOOKS NOW PLZ KTHX.

I devoured this. DEVOURED it. And it was QUITE tasty, if I do say so myself.

I think this may be one of my favourite of Johnson’s books. Here’s the thing. It’s kind of dealing with a really tough period in a teen girl’s life – not only does she have to deal with regular teen stuff, she also needs to adjust to her father’s death the previous year. Goodness. It’s hard enough just being a teen, but to throw that into the mix too? It’s a whole new level of tough stuff.

Each of the characters in this book were so well written too – they were all very three-dimensional. Even the side characters that we only saw a few times, you could see the depth that was there. Like May’s best friend (don’t remember her name and don’t have the book with me at the moment, my apologies).

I also really like how, while the book was primarily about May, each of the sisters got plenty of screen time. They all had issues that they were dealing with – Brooks has started hanging out with a bad crowd and turned to alcohol, while Palmer has been suffering through crazy panic attacks on a weekly basis – and they all went through a whole heck of a lot of character growth before the end of the novel.

Another really great thing about this book was the fact that it didn’t focus on the blossoming romance between the main character and her perspective beau – which is something that can be found in quite a few of Johnson’s books. This particular one was more about family and coming to grips with the death of a father.

The Bottom Line
I loooooved this and I am bemoaning the fact that I have to wait until APRIL until I get another one of Maureen Johnson’s books. Highly recommended. show less

I read this book later in my initial Maureen Johnson splurge, and it’s one that I very quickly fell in love with. It doesn’t actually read like her first book, which is surprising for me, and I recommend this as one to start with when starting Johnson’s books (and I don’t necessarily start reading authors from first book onward).

There’s a recurring trend in a lot of YA right now—mostly in the paranormal camp, but it crops in realistic YA frequently—to kill off one or both of the main character’s parents. And the majority of the time, the reader needs to be reminded that “My parent(s) is/are dead!” because apparently, grief is expressed through being bland and the death is so inconsequential to the plot, it needs to show more be thrown in there for extra angst. This is not that kind of book. After the opening chapter, the plot fast forwards a year after the death of the Gold girls’ father, and we do see them dealing with their own forms of grief. There’s a lot of emotional and financial fallout from this, and the Golds actually deal with it—from forced charity from their neighbors, to people feeling suddenly sorry for meeting any of the girls. It doesn’t feel like forced angst and Johnson really examines the damage from a sudden death.

All of the main characters are dealing with their grief and frustrations in their own ways. May has to deal with her litany of chores and work, plus the stress of passing her driver’s exam AND still resentful of how little her sisters contribute. Brooks’s story does fall a little into the after-school special territory, with her DUI, but I still liked her story and how she does try to help May out through an emotional crisis. Palmer’s not as engaging as her older sisters, but she feels like she has the most grief to deal with. And while everyone has to comes to terms with the current situation and try to heal from it, I like that at the end, it feels like nothing’s automatically resolved and the Golds have a long way to go before moving on. The sisters are closer, but they’re still healing emotionally.

I wouldn’t say that May is my favorite character, but she’s the one I connected with the most. There’s books where I could relate to the main character, but very few that I can stop and go, “Oh my god, that is my life right there.” May’s one of those characters. For me, personally, I could very easily relate to her frustration surrounding her family, being dumped with a bunch of errands, and her tumultuous relationship with a sports-loving father. There’s a great moment when May finally passes her driver’s test, only to have her mother rattle off a list of chores, and May snaps “Can’t I be normal and celebrate for a second?” This is my life on the page, right there. I’m probably identifying a little too much with her, but because of that personal connection, that’s why I gravitate toward May.

This is not slight Brooks and Palmer. Like I said, Palmer’s grief feels the most raw, as she was the closest to her father. It makes a lot of sense that she’s the one who propels most of the healing process—finding her father’s ashes, and suggesting the trip to Camden Yards. And I liked that while Palmer’s thing with her dad was softball and sports, it’s what she uses to deal with her grief. It feels very natural, that Palmer would be so focused on improving her game, it shuts her pain away. And while Brooks delves into after-school special territory, it’s more due to her thinking that she doesn’t have anyone expecting anything of her. I also really like that Brooks and May have a quiet resent towards one another, both thinking that the other sister has it easy—May toward Brooks for being the oldest and doing whatever she wants; and Brooks thinking May gets it easy for going to a better school and getting better college prospects. The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry doesn’t often get into deeper details like this, so I liked that both Brooks and May’s resentments were explored.

There are some things that I don’t like about the book. I don’t mind May figuring out that she’s been in love with childhood companion Pete Camp, but I don’t think it’s handled well. I really don’t like that May’s work supervisor, Nell, is thrown in there to make an unnecessary love triangle. And I don’t like Nell’s character in general—she comes off as too much of a hypocritical granola girl for me to consider seriously.

That said though, I do really like this book. Even aside from my personal affection for May, it’s just a really good book. It’s one that actually explores a parent’s death and shows the family dealing with it and their respective grief. If you haven’t read this one by now, do so. show less

One minute May Gold was the average teenage girl, trying to balance being a good daughter and sister while simultaneously plotting revenge on the boy next door, her father’s best friend’s son Pete Camp (hint: it involves nudity). The next, she’s father-less, Mike Gold the victim of a heart attack that leaves behind a struggling nurse wife and three shocked sisters, who whirl off into their own ways of dealing with the news.

A year later, things have not improved much in the Gold household. Their mother is constantly at work, and is thus unable to notice how Brooks, the eldest sister, sneaks out every night to get drunk with her “boyfriend” Dave and his motley crew. Palmer, the youngest, struggles to hide her panic attacks while show more becoming the next softball star on her high school’s varsity team. And May, the middle sister, the responsible one, feels constrained by the chores laid upon her because no one else will do them.

Even worse, May fails her driver’s test—and May never fails any test. She has no choice but to accept Pete’s offer of teaching her how to drive, providing him with even more opportunities to tease her and play jokes on her. Pete has always been “just Pete” to May… until he starts dating her coworker. Suddenly, May’s not sure if she’s comfortable with the situation. Which means… what? And what can she possibly do about it, when she and her two sisters don’t know yet when they are allowed to be normal again?

The plot, while basic, comes alive at the skilled hands of Maureen Johnson, who provides wit, humor, and heart aplenty for everyone. It’s an easy read, but the writing will stay with you and make you yearn for more from this highly acclaimed author. show less

The Gold sisters have always been tight but after the death of their father, they all start to fall apart in different ways. Middle child May needs to figure out how to drive while also taking up the slack while their mom works nights. At the same time, her two sisters have their own crises.

This novel was Maureen Johnson's first novel and it's easy to see her skills aren't as polished as in some of her more recent novels. That being said, the novel is a wonderful insight into the lives all three Gold sisters as they deal with the repercussions of their father's death and trying to move on. Sad, sweet, and funny, this novel is about the ties of family and how they change in the face of grief.

Maureen has been one of my favorite contemporary authors since I first read 13 Little Blue Envelopes several years ago. The reason i even found out about her was because of her friendship with John Green and her participation as "Secret Sister Maureen" in the original Brotherhood 2.0 videos. I'm so glad for those videos because not only did they bring about an awesome community, they helped introduce me to two of my favorite writers.

This was, I believe, the second book of Maureen's I ever picked up, having found it on a YA table at the local Barnes & Noble. It's been sitting in my to-read pile ever since, so I figured it was about time I changed that.

One of the things I love about the relationships between the Gold sisters is, even with show more all the drama in their lives and the problems they are all facing, it doesn't devolve into sappy teen melodrama. Characters don't break down and scream at each other over the smallest slight. Emotions build rationally over the course of the novel. The reactions remain believable and never go over the top. This is the story of four women putting their lives back together after a massive family trauma and having no idea where to start.

I really enjoyed this one. show less

Full review at http://yannabe.com/2009/07/13/review-the-key-to-the-golden-firebird/

Summary: After their father’s heart attack, their mom starts working overtime and it’s up to the three Gold sisters—May, Palmer, and Brooks—to pull through it on their own.

Review: This story is about how grief can turn you into a zombie. And Johnson’s humor was the perfect way to temper the heavy topic.

Although I’m not usually a fan of alternating points of view, it worked for me in this story because a common grief united the three girls.

Here’s the first part of May’s story to give you a taste for the rest of the book:

May Gold’s actual name was Mayzie. As far as she knew, this was not a real name. It was a made-up, moon-man-language show more name based on Willie Mays, one of the most famous baseball players of all time.

All of the Gold girls were named after baseball players, a testament to their father’s obsessive love of the game. Brooks was named after Brooks Robinson, twenty-two-year veteran of the Baltimore Orioles. Palmer was named after Jim Palmer, who was considered to be the best pitcher in Orioles history. May’s sisters’ names had relevance in their lives. They played softball. (Palmer was, in fact, a pitcher.) Also, Brooks and Palmer were kind of cool-sounding names. May could imagine a Brooks or a Palmer working in a law firm or becoming a famous artist. Mayzie was someone who had a washing machine on her front porch and turned up on some trashy talk show for the “My Mom Married My Brother!” episode. show less

Three sisters find their family falling apart a year after their father's unexpected death. This is a sweet story of how they manage to reach out and pull themselves together, as well as survive the regular complications of being a teenager.
The three sisters are very different people, but the author brings each of them vividly to life.