Six years ago, Taylor Markham was abandoned at a gas station near the Jellicoe School, a boarding school in the Australian bush. Now in her final year, Taylor is the leader of her dorm, and one of the generals in the decades-long territory wars going on between the students at the school, the Townies, and the Cadets.
The only adult Taylor has ever been able to count on, Hannah, has vanished, leaving behind chunks of a story she had been writing, about four kids who lived in the area twenty years before, after a terrible accident. This story is told in chunks throughout the book, and eventually Taylor--with the help of the Cadet leader Jonah, who she ran away with several years before--manages to piece together who she is, and how she is connected to Hannah and the kids in the story.
Citation
. Impression
This book was really hard to summarize, and I think it's because I didn't really get it. It honestly left me kind of cold--I was pretty interested in the ideas given in the blurb--boarding school! Territory wars! Sounds good! But the wars are really a pretty minor part of the book, the writing style is kind of unfocused and dreamlike, and the random insertions of the chunks of story about the kids in the past are kind of confusing until, a way into the book, we find out that it's Hannah's story.
Really, I think this book is just too literary for me. I know lots of people love it, but I just couldn't get in to the story--it wasn't plotty enough, I didn't really connect with Taylor or any of the other characters, it wasn't really a school story, the writing made it all seem very distant. This is another one where I can tell why it won the Printz, I can tell why people might like it, but it is just not my cup of tea.
Reviews
"When she was 11, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother at a convenience store. At 17, she resides in a boarding school on Jellicoe Road. The closest person to her is Hannah, a nearby resident and would-be foster mom to the school's misfits. Now Hannah has disappeared when Taylor needs her most. She has been chosen to lead the school in its war with the local "Townies" and visiting "Cadets"-the cadets being led by a smoldering Jonah Briggs, with whom Taylor has a past. Looking for a clue to Hannah's whereabouts, Taylor reads a manuscript she left that tells the story of five friends united by a fatal accident on Jellicoe Road 22 years earlier. Why It is a Best: Set in rural Australia, the story of Taylor and of the five friends is permeated by a sense of place and time. Readers will smell the trees and taste the dust. Why It Is for Us: This is rich and layered domestic fiction that requires patience and careful attention as it spins a story of parents, children, and the legacy of tragedy. Readers of Anita Shreve and Wally Lamb will find much to enjoy here."
This book was really hard to summarize, and I think it's because I didn't really get it. It honestly left me kind of cold--I was pretty interested in the ideas given in the blurb--boarding school! Territory wars! Sounds good! But the wars are really a pretty minor part of the book, the writing style is kind of unfocused and dreamlike, and the random insertions of the chunks of story about the kids in the past are kind of confusing until, a way into the book, we find out that it's Hannah's story.
Really, I think this book is just too literary for me. I know lots of people love it, but I just couldn't get in to the story--it wasn't plotty enough, I didn't really connect with Taylor or any of the other characters, it wasn't really a school story, the writing made it all seem very distant. This is another one where I can tell why it won the Printz, I can tell why people might like it, but it is just not my cup of tea.
Reviews
"When she was 11, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother at a convenience store. At 17, she resides in a boarding school on Jellicoe Road. The closest person to her is Hannah, a nearby resident and would-be foster mom to the school's misfits. Now Hannah has disappeared when Taylor needs her most. She has been chosen to lead the school in its war with the local "Townies" and visiting "Cadets"-the cadets being led by a smoldering Jonah Briggs, with whom Taylor has a past. Looking for a clue to Hannah's whereabouts, Taylor reads a manuscript she left that tells the story of five friends united by a fatal accident on Jellicoe Road 22 years earlier. Why It is a Best: Set in rural Australia, the story of Taylor and of the five friends is permeated by a sense of place and time. Readers will smell the trees and taste the dust. Why It Is for Us: This is rich and layered domestic fiction that requires patience and careful attention as it spins a story of parents, children, and the legacy of tragedy. Readers of Anita Shreve and Wally Lamb will find much to enjoy here."
Benedetti, A. (2008, December 9). [Review of the book Jellicoe Road, by M. Marchetta]. Library Journal. Retrieved from http://www.libraryjournal.com/.
Taylor Markham isn't just one of the new student leaders of her boarding school, she's also the heir to the Underground Community, one of three battling school factions in her small Australian community (the others being the Cadets and the Townies). For a generation, these three camps have fought the territory wars, a deadly serious negotiation of land and property rife with surprise attacks, diplomatic immunities, and physical violence. Only this year, it's complicated: Taylor might just have a thing for Cadet leader Jonah, and Jonah might just be the key to unlocking the secret identity of Taylor's mother, who abandoned her when she was 11. In fact, nearly every relationship in Taylor's life has unexpected ties to her past, and the continual series of revelations is both the book's strength and weakness; the melodrama can be trying, but when Marchetta isn't forcing epiphanies, she has a knack for nuanced characterizations and punchy dialogue. The complexity of the backstory will be offputting to younger readers, but those who stick it out will find rewards in the heartbreaking twists of Marchetta's saga.
Taylor Markham isn't just one of the new student leaders of her boarding school, she's also the heir to the Underground Community, one of three battling school factions in her small Australian community (the others being the Cadets and the Townies). For a generation, these three camps have fought the territory wars, a deadly serious negotiation of land and property rife with surprise attacks, diplomatic immunities, and physical violence. Only this year, it's complicated: Taylor might just have a thing for Cadet leader Jonah, and Jonah might just be the key to unlocking the secret identity of Taylor's mother, who abandoned her when she was 11. In fact, nearly every relationship in Taylor's life has unexpected ties to her past, and the continual series of revelations is both the book's strength and weakness; the melodrama can be trying, but when Marchetta isn't forcing epiphanies, she has a knack for nuanced characterizations and punchy dialogue. The complexity of the backstory will be offputting to younger readers, but those who stick it out will find rewards in the heartbreaking twists of Marchetta's saga.
Kraus, D. (2008, November 1). [Review of the book Jellicoe Road, by M. Marchetta]. Booklist. Retrieved from http://www.booklistonline.com
Uses
Even though I didn't care for the book, I think it could serve as inspiration for some really excellent fan art or videos. Lots of authors have fan art or book trailer contests to promote new releases, and I think a library doing a similar thing could be a fun way to get kids to explore the collection.
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