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Overview
I am not my illness. "Girl with Anxiety," "Trauma of the Week" — no. I hate stuff like that. Everyone, everyone has their issue. But the one thing my illness did make me realize is how necessary it is to ignore the dangers of living in order to live. And how much trouble you can get into if you can't.
Jade DeLuna is too young to die. She knows this, and yet she can't quite believe it, especially when the terrifying thoughts, loss of breath, and dizzy feelings come. Since being diagnosed with Panic Disorder, she's trying her best to stay calm, and visiting the elephants at the nearby zoo seems to help. That's why Jade keeps the live zoo webcam on in her room, and that's where she first sees the boy in the red jacket. A boy who stops to watch the elephants. A boy carrying a baby.
His name is Sebastian, and he is raising his son alone. Jade is drawn into Sebastian's cozy life with his son and his activist grandmother on their Seattle houseboat, and before she knows it, she's in love. With this boy who has lived through harder times than anyone she knows. This boy with a past.
Jade knows the situation is beyond complicated, but she hasn't felt this safe in a long time. She owes it all to Sebastian, her boy with the great heart. Her boy who is hiding a terrible secret. A secret that will force Jade to decide between what is right, and what feels right.
Master storyteller Deb Caletti has once again created characters so real, you will be breathless with anticipation as their riveting story unfolds.
Synopsis
Since being diagnosed with Panic Disorder, Jade DeLuna is trying her best to stay calm, and visiting the elephants at the nearby zoo seems to help. That’s why Jade keeps the live zoo webcam on in her room, and where she first sees Sebastian.
When she finally meets him, their connection is immediate, and soon Jade is drawn into Sebastian’s life with his son and his grandmother on their Seattle houseboat. Even though the situation is complicated, Jade hasn’t felt this safe in a long time.
Until she learns that Sebastian is hiding a terrible secret. A secret that will force Jade to decide between what is right, and what feels right. . . .
Publishers Weekly
When 17-year-old Jade sees a curly-haired boy on a zoo Web camera a boy with a baby on his back she gets that "little feeling of knowing, this fuzzy, gnawing sense that someone will become a major something in your life." After she volunteers to work with the elephants, she meets and falls in love with Sebastian, and is quickly drawn into his complicated life including his dangerous secret. Jade's life has its own complexities, such as a "missing in action" father, and a mother who is overly involved in Jade's high school. Caletti's (Wild Roses) multilayered novel interweaves many plot points; the fascinating anecdotes about animal behavior that begin each chapter ground the story, as does the guidance of Jade's gentle counselor. Some characters do not fully come alive, such as the brokenhearted elephant keeper Damian, who mourns the pachyderm he left behind in India. (Readers will likely take to Damian regardless, and appreciate his part in teaching Jade that she is like her name, "One of the strongest materials. Stronger than steel.") The author offers a rather unflinching look at realistically complicated lives; readers will root for Jade as she begins to learn that she can't "put things into separate compartments: right, wrong, good, bad" especially when it comes to the people she loves. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationEditorials
Publishers Weekly
When 17-year-old Jade sees a curly-haired boy on a zoo Web camera—a boy with a baby on his back—she gets that "little feeling of knowing, this fuzzy, gnawing sense that someone will become a major something in your life." After she volunteers to work with the elephants, she meets and falls in love with Sebastian, and is quickly drawn into his complicated life—including his dangerous secret. Jade's life has its own complexities, such as a "missing in action" father, and a mother who is overly involved in Jade's high school. Caletti's (Wild Roses) multilayered novel interweaves many plot points; the fascinating anecdotes about animal behavior that begin each chapter ground the story, as does the guidance of Jade's gentle counselor. Some characters do not fully come alive, such as the brokenhearted elephant keeper Damian, who mourns the pachyderm he left behind in India. (Readers will likely take to Damian regardless, and appreciate his part in teaching Jade that she is like her name, "One of the strongest materials. Stronger than steel.") The author offers a rather unflinching look at realistically complicated lives; readers will root for Jade as she begins to learn that she can't "put things into separate compartments: right, wrong, good, bad"—especially when it comes to the people she loves. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationKLIATT -
To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, January, 2007: Caletti, author of carefully written YA novels such as Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, a finalist for the National Book Award, gives us an unusual story about a brilliant teenager named Jade, a senior in high school. Part of the nature of Jade is that she suffers from debilitating panic attacks, helped by medication, but baffling and confusing. One of her coping mechanisms is to focus on the web cam coverage of the elephant house at the local zoo, keeping watch over the marvelous creatures. Eventually she volunteers at the zoo and bonds with the elephant keeper, Damian Rama. As Jade monitors the web cam from her own room and also spends time with the elephants at the zoo, she notices that a young man with a small child frequently comes to observe the elephants. Eventually Jade meets Sebastian and his little son and their friendship turns into a love affair. But, Sebastian is hiding a secret that will change their plans for the future, and the secret raises ethical considerations that are difficult to resolve. To meet these challenges, Jade needs to overcome her own fears and allow herself to take some risks. In telling about Jade and Sebastian, Caletti pushes her readers to consider these same moral choices, and perhaps to realize that sometimes there are no correct answers in life. In and around the story about humans is the story of the elephants, especially Jum, a young elephant who was left behind in Asia by Damian Rama, the elephant keeper, who says to Jade, "When you raise an animal, you love it like your own child. I know her thoughts, her needs. She wonders where I am, and I can't bear it." So Damian, likeSebastian, leaves Jade to care for a small creature he loves. But Damian reassures her, "You are not vulnerable any more…you are living up to your name." And Damian Rama is right: Jade is stronger, and when spring comes in a new year, she can finally conquer her own fear of change. Reviewer: Claire RosserChildren's Literature -
Author of a National Book Award finalist (Honey, Baby, Sweetheart), Deb Caletti unites the unique and the commonplace in her latest coming-of-age novel. Jade DeLuna struggles to navigate the changing landscape of her relationships with her family and friends during her senior year of high school, while also dealing with panic disorder. This debilitating condition causes her to fear anything new and question her own instincts about what is good for her, and what is dangerous. To calm herself, she visits the zoo and becomes so fascinated by the elephants—and so disgusted with the smallness of her own life—she becomes a volunteer at the elephant house. Thus begins Jade's education in animal behavior, and she gradually forms bonds with both the elephants and the people who work at the zoo. When she meets Sebastian, a young father raising his son alone, Jade's heart wars with her head as she learns how complicated life can be in spite of her caution. With intelligent yet emotion-drenched prose, Caletti expertly weaves a story of humor and pathos featuring a cast of unforgettable, multi-faceted human and animal characters. Along the way, she offers gentle lessons in compassion, growth, and change, and the power of love in its many forms.VOYA -
Panic attacks are what Jade DeLuna knows best, although medication and an understanding therapist have recently helped her to cope more successfully. Because she has always found elephants relaxing, she spends her more anxious moments gazing at the elephants at the local zoo on their Web cam. She observes a young man, noting that he visits often, sometimes with a toddler in a backpack and often late at night, without him. Jade feels that she needs to meet him, so she decides to volunteer at the zoo in the elephant enclosure. She is an immediate success with both the elephant trainer and the elephants because of her gentle nature, and she meets Sebastian and Bo, the boy and the toddler. Soon Jade learns that Sebastian's life is very complicated, maybe too complicated for someone trying to overcome anxiety disorder. But as Jade discovers, sometimes love takes a person in directions one might never have anticipated. Caletti masterfully creates her character and setting with highly crafted, straight-to-the heart prose. Jade, unsure of herself and her feelings except when she is interacting with the elephants, is someone whom teen readers will recognize. This interaction anchors the book and Jade's increasing confidence and comfort with the world. Sensitive readers will deeply connect with Sebastian's love for his son, Jade's love for the elephants, and the loss of love that her parents are experiencing. Caletti is not for every reader, but the right readers will feel every word in this book.Children's Literature -
On the day her parents leave for a second honeymoon in Hawaii, Jade thinks she's going to die—her heart pounds painfully in her chest and she fights for breath—just before the macaroni and cheese dinner becomes history. Three years later, a high school senior, Jade is still taking medication for her anxiety/panic attacks, still seeing a psychologist, has learned some strategies to cope, but is still scared of lots of things, like going away to college. It calms her to watch the elephants on the zoo cam, where one day she sees the boy in the red coat with the baby in his backpack and she is hooked. Jade's own family is slowly coming apart as she becomes part of two new families—the elephant family at the zoo where she now volunteers, and the red-jacket boy's, which has to be kept a secret. This story of a young woman growing up, falling in love (with a boy, a baby, the elephants), and learning to renegotiate all the important relationships in her life is told with such heart and in such resonant language that the reader wants to meet and know these characters in real life. Jade struggles with some of the same troubling issues faced by other young adults, including peer pressure, parental demands, and her own fear and uncertainty about making the right decisions. Everything about this book is well done—character development, setting, pacing of the story, writing style—Caletti is a master of the art.School Library Journal
Gr 9 & Up - Seventeen-year-old Jade DeLuna suffers from panic attacks brought on by realizations of her own mortality. In addition to therapy and prescribed medication, she finds relief from her condition by taking care of elephants at a local zoo in Seattle. When she meets Sebastian, a handsome boy with a 15-month-old son, she falls in love with him and becomes immersed in his world. In addition to dealing with her anxiety and keeping her relationship with Sebastian secret, Jade must also come to terms with her parents' deteriorating marriage, her friends drifting apart, and an A.P.-heavy course load. Told from her perspective, the novel contains intense passages about loneliness, death, and human relationships intercut with seemingly factual information about the physical and emotional lives of elephants. Frequent remarks about the similarities between humans and animals often feel redundant, and the plot is more entertaining than Jade's animal anecdotes. Despite this, the novel takes on an interesting perspective that is not often shown in books-that teen parents can form meaningful and loving relationships with their peers.-Marie C. Hansen, New York Public Library
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information