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Backwater

Name: Backwater
Author: Joan Bauer
ISBN: 9780142404348

by Joan Bauer

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Overview

Ivy doesn't want to be a lawyer. Who cares?-well, her father, for starters, who expects his daughter to take up the Breedlove family profession with dedication and enthusiasm. What Ivy wants to be is a historian, a vocation that's getting quite a workout as she prepares a family history in honor of her beloved great-aunt Tib's eightieth birthday. As in Bauer's Rules of the Road, the central story is of a journey: Ivy hikes into the wilds of the Adirondacks to find her reclusive aunt Jo-and to find her own destiny as well. Persistent, mouthy, and good, Ivy is an admirable heroine who will be familiar to Bauer fans; older female friends (including Tib, Aunt Jo, and wilderness expert Mountain Mama) are equally attractive if given to message-laden dialogue. In fact, the book could have used less preaching and more story overall, but Ivy is such a darned fine gal that readers will be glad to make her acquaintance.

While compiling a genealogy of her family of successful attorneys, sixteen-year-old history buff Ivy Breedlove treks into the mountain wilderness to interview a reclusive aunt with whom she identifies and who in turn helps her to truly know herself and her family.

Synopsis

Publishers Weekly

In this compelling, though ultimately uneven outing, Bauer (Rules of the Road) travels to a literal and emotional backwater, navigating the strong ties that bind-and have the potential to choke-a proud but dysfunctional family. For generations, the Breedloves have been respected lawyers in the community, and it's been expected-nearly demanded-that 16-year-old Ivy will follow in their footsteps. But Ivy feels driven to become a historian and, as her first major project, she undertakes the task of compiling the Breedlove genealogy. As the family gathers for the holidays, Ivy's time-saving Aunt Fiona (she has her own TV show, It's About Time) skims through the family history with a video camera. But Ivy determines that, to make the family tree complete, she must locate long-lost Aunt Josephine, her father's rebellious sister. Her search leads her to the Adirondacks, where she comes face-to-face with not only Josephine, but Ivy's own fears about life as a Breedlove. In the best passages, Bauer's characters crackle with eccentricity and exhibit glimmers of intense emotion. Mountaineering fans will also thrill at the wintry, rugged scenery. But in the end, readers may feel Ivy's adventure-and the extreme avenues taken by Josephine-to be too far-fetched. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

VOYA - Maura Bresnahan

Sixteen-year-old Ivy Breedlove is a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. For generations the Breedloves have had illustrious careers as lawyers, judges, and law professors. Ivy, raised by her lawyer father since her mother's death from cancer when Ivy was six, knows that her calling is the study of the past. Bauer's story opens the day after Christmas at the Breedlove family's homestead in the Adirondack Mountains in New York where the clan has gathered for the holidays. Ivy has taken over the compilation of the family history. When she learns that her father's sister, long estranged from the family, may be living a hermit-like existence high in a mountain cabin, she is determined to make contact with her aunt. With the help of Mountain Mama, a wilderness guide writing a self-help New Age novel, Ivy travels through the snow-covered terrain to her aunt's refuge. Both the journey and the time she spends with her Aunt Jo give Ivy the strength to carve out her own place in the Breedlove family and communicate more openly with her father. Bauer once again provides readers with an eminently likeable heroine with whom they will quickly identify. Ivy's quest to be herself, not what other people expect of her, is one many adolescents share. All the reader's senses are brought alive in the scenes set in the mountain wilderness. As in her other novels, Bauer brings a strong affiliation with the land to this work. The setting's geography is lovingly detailed and one cannot help but feel one is traveling to the "backwater" with Ivy in search of history, and ultimately hope. Mountain Mama's sign says it all: "You are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Don't just stand there--come on in." VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P M J S Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12.

School Library Journal

Gr 7 UpDuring a family reunion at Plum Lake, NY, at the beginning of the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, teenager Ivy Breedlove feels overwhelmed by the aggressive energy pouring forth from her relatives. Because she doesnt want to follow the family tradition of becoming a lawyer and prefers quiet pastimes such as reading and genealogy, they are somewhat contemptuous of her, remarking that she reminds them of crazy, mysterious Aunt Josephine, who disappeared years ago. Upset that Aunt Fiona thinks that family history can be suitably reported on a quickly produced videotape and totally leaving out Josephine, Ivy embarks on a search for the missing woman. Following this quest into the mountains leads Ivy to engage the climbing talents of the physically powerful, worldly wise, and somehow engaging Mountain Mama. Through blisters, storms, collapsed shelter, and shifting lake ice, Ivy struggles to reunite her family and secure her own place within it. Bauer brings together seemingly disparate plot elements and makes them work beautifully. Readers will feel an immediate rapport with Ivy, and they will come to understand, admire, and learn from Mountain Mama and Josephine. Rich with engaging characters, a light love interest, and dramatic tension in a well-paced plot, this is another great read from Bauer.Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Bauer (Rules of the Road, 1998, etc.) catalogs the benefits of staying connected to the past in this exuberant, melodramatic tale of self-discovery. Although many of her relatives are lawyers, and her father has repeatedly and emphatically asserted that the Breedloves are, have always been, and always will be lawyers, Ivy discovers a notable exception: Aunt Josephine is a strange, reclusive duck who hasn't been seen in years. Determined to get Jo's story for a family history she is compiling for a great-aunt's 80th birthday, Ivy ventures out to the remote Adirondacks cabin where her aunt lives in solitude, surrounded by books, woodcarvings, and songbirds that perch on her shoulders. Interviewing Jo, Ivy not only gets some surprising news about her Type-A father, but finds validation for her own maverick yen to be a historian. The visit turns into an adventure when, in the midst of a winter storm, a falling tree shatters both the cabin and Jo's leg, leading to a wild, desperate run for help, followed by a funny, touching family reunion. Bauer tucks a budding romance between Ivy and a ranger-in-training into the triumphant finale, and in the contentious, gregarious Breedloves celebrates the similarities and differences that bind families. If it's all just a little larger than life, that only adds to the entertainment. (Fiction. 11-15)