Friday, May 22, 2009

Category 1, Book 8: Award Winners - Jellicoe Road

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
999 Challenge Category: Award Winners and Honors
Jellicoe Road was this year's Printz Award Winner.

Taylor Markham's mother left her at the 7-11 on the Jellicoe Road. Six years later, Taylor is the House leader at her school and the school leader in the "territory wars" against the Townies and the Cadets. It doesn't help that the leader of the Cadets, Jonah Griggs, is someone Taylor has something of a history with. On top of all this new responsibility, Taylor freaks when Hannah, the woman who found her at the 7-11 and took her in for a time, suddenly disappears.

This well-crafted story is told in two parts - Taylor's first-person, present tense narration and another story, interspersed here and there, about the survivors of a car crash on Jellicoe Road 22 years before Taylor's story. Though at first confusing, seeing the two narratives come together was a lot of fun, even after I'd figured out much of the connections. The story and characters will stay with me for a long time. 5 stars.

Cross-posted at the 999 Challenge.

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