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Overview
For as long as Josephine Alibrandi can remember, it’s just been her, her mom, and her grandmother. Now it’s her final year at a wealthy Catholic high school. The nuns couldn’t be any stricter—but that doesn’t seem to stop all kinds of men from coming into her life.Caught between the old-world values of her Italian grandmother, the nononsense wisdom of her mom, and the boys who continue to mystify her, Josephine is on the ride of her life. This will be the year she falls in love, the year she discovers the secrets of her family’s past—and the year she sets herself free.
Told with unmatched depth and humor, this novel—which swept the pool of Australian literary awards and became a major motion picture—is one to laugh through and cry with, to cherish and remember.
During her senior year in a Catholic school in Sydney, Australia, seventeen-year-old Josie meets and must contend with the father she has never known.
Synopsis
Seventeen-year-old Josie Alibrandi worries about all the things girls worry about during their last year of high school, but she has the added complication of being illegitimate...and coming face-to-face with her father for the first time in her life.
Publishers Weekly
Although this involving novel is set in the author's native Australia, American readers will feel right at home, thanks to the charismatic, outspoken narrator, 17-year-old Josephine Alibrandi. A scholarship student at a tony Catholic girls' school, Josie is aware that she is different from her affluent "Aussie" classmates: she's illegitimate, and she's closely tied to her Italian immigrant community. She feels periodically rebellious against her classmates' snobbishness, against the nuns' authority at school, against her community's mores. Even so, Josie clearly regards the women in her life--her single mother, her grandmother and even some of the nuns--with affection as well as exasperation. Josie has less experience dealing with guys until senior year, when three members of the opposite sex complicate her world. Her father, who has not previously known of her existence, arrives on the scene unexpectedly, and she can't help feeling drawn to him. She also becomes involved with two boys her own age: the upper-class but desperately unhappy John Barton and the wilder, iconoclastic Jacob Coote. The casting or plot may sound clich ed, but the characterizations are unusually insightful and persuasive. In articulate, passionate prose, Marchetta weaves the intricate web of Josephine's relationships, juxtaposing her revelations about her family history against current crises (these include John's suicide). If the author loses momentum at the end, straining for tidy closure, she does, simultaneously, leave open new doorways for her heroine. Ages 14-up. (Apr.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Although this involving novel is set in the author's native Australia, American readers will feel right at home, thanks to the charismatic, outspoken narrator, 17-year-old Josephine Alibrandi. A scholarship student at a tony Catholic girls' school, Josie is aware that she is different from her affluent "Aussie" classmates: she's illegitimate, and she's closely tied to her Italian immigrant community. She feels periodically rebellious against her classmates' snobbishness, against the nuns' authority at school, against her community's mores. Even so, Josie clearly regards the women in her life--her single mother, her grandmother and even some of the nuns--with affection as well as exasperation. Josie has less experience dealing with guys until senior year, when three members of the opposite sex complicate her world. Her father, who has not previously known of her existence, arrives on the scene unexpectedly, and she can't help feeling drawn to him. She also becomes involved with two boys her own age: the upper-class but desperately unhappy John Barton and the wilder, iconoclastic Jacob Coote. The casting or plot may sound clich ed, but the characterizations are unusually insightful and persuasive. In articulate, passionate prose, Marchetta weaves the intricate web of Josephine's relationships, juxtaposing her revelations about her family history against current crises (these include John's suicide). If the author loses momentum at the end, straining for tidy closure, she does, simultaneously, leave open new doorways for her heroine. Ages 14-up. (Apr.)Publishers Weekly
"Although this involving novel is set in the author's native Australia, American readers will feel right at home, thanks to the charismatic, outspoken 17-year-old narrator," said PW. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.KLIATT
To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, March 1999: Josephine Alibrandi is in her senior year at a Catholic high school in Sydney, Australia. She's a smart-mouthed scholarship student who lives with her mother, with a big chip on her shoulder about both her illegitimacy and her Italian heritage. She squabbles constantly with her grandmother, who clings to her Italian circle of family and friends and always worries about what people will say. When Josie unexpectedly meets her father for the first time, she's taken aback and swears she'll have nothing to do with him; but when she gets into a fight with another girl at school who calls her a wog, she calls her father, a lawyer, to come to her defense and they gradually develop a relationship. Meanwhile, Josie acquires a boyfriend. He wants to be a mechanic, while Josie plans to study law. Their different aspirations, and her refusal to have sex, lead to tension. She learns to appreciate her grandmother when she relates the sad and shocking story of her true love from long ago, which helps to explain some family background. And when a friend commits suicide, Josie realizes that elite students she has always envied are under pressures of their own. It's a year of change and growing self-awareness for the outspoken, emotional 17-year-old, and it's a pleasure getting to know her through her ups and downs. Bits of Australian slang (fairy toast, dunnies) shouldn't slow readers down much, and they'll find Josie's concerns about family, friends, boys, and identity easy to relate to. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1999, Random House, Knopf, 313p., Ages 15 to adult.—Paula Rohrlick