When an ostracized and mocked teen starts a blog revealing her classmate’s secrets, what is our every-person narrator supposed to do?
I asked my seven year old, after reading the book to her. Her response I don’t know. That probably makes sense, as this book is targeted at, I’d say, the middle-school crowd (complete with vocab and questions at the end for study in the classroom! Which is probably great for a teacher, but I’d have a hard time believing that an eleven year old is going to be enthused about picking up a book only to find homework at the end). I did try to get some of my seven year old’s thoughts as we read through. She said the other kids were mean to Agnes. That even so Agnes shouldn’t have stolen their secrets. That she didn’t understand why Agnes just didn’t act normal to make the kids like her (I’m kind of worried about that response, but she’s seven so maybe she hasn’t developed as much abstract-empathy-thinking-brain-a-doodle stuff as an eleven year old. In any case, I’m going to re-read Franny K. Stein to her to reiterate the importance of not just being what other people want you to be).
The tone of the book is a bit moralistic, which is the point, but not too preachy. The ethical dilemmas presented are all basically simplistic with set answers (don’t be mean to odd kids, don’t steal things, speak up for what is right, don’t judge people without getting to know them first, two wrongs don’t make a right, etc.), which is expected given the target audience. I found it hackneyed, the nameless, genderless, every-person narrator, but I understand that it’s so that the YA reader can put herself as the narrator. It’s a decision that Cheng made, probably because most of us are bystanders rather than the bullied or bully, so the story could appeal to the broadest group of readers. But having the narrator a step back from some of the action means there’s a lot of telling what’s going on with other characters. If it were a trial, most everything would be thrown out as hearsay; and I’d rather hear from Agnes (the bullied) and Leah (the bully) more than nameless. Or to have some of the conflicts a bit less cut-and-dry. But it’s YA. The whole point of YA is that nuance is only as developed as the teen/pre-teen audience.
Edge the Bare Garden is pure YA, doesn’t claim otherwise, or pretend to be more than that. It’s meant for a classroom setting, full of middle schoolers rolling their eyes and acting tough as the teacher reads it aloud and gives journal prompts, but it’ll likely get through to some. Hopefully.
Edge the Bare Garden by Roseanne Cheng went on sale September 15, 2015.
I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.