The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy

An alcoholic mother, a distracted father, a best friend who spends all his time with his new “girlfriend,” and three relentless schoolyard bullies: Prinny Murphy's past, present, and future certainly are “tense.” Adding to her misery, she still can't read well enough to escape from remedial lessons with the dour Mrs. Dooks. But when a kindly substitute teacher introduces her to LaVaughn's inner-city world in the free verse novel, Make Lemonade, Prinny discovers that life can be full of possibilities – and poetry.

An alcoholic mother, a distracted father, a best friend who spends all his time with his new “girlfriend,” and three relentless schoolyard bullies: Prinny Murphy's past, present, and future certainly are “tense.” Adding to her misery, she still can't read well enough to escape from remedial lessons with the dour Mrs. Dooks. But when a kindly substitute teacher introduces her to LaVaughn's inner-city world in the free verse novel, Make Lemonade, Prinny discovers that life can be full of possibilities – and poetry.

VOYA

The present is indeed tense for Prinny Murphy, a lonely sixth-grader from Ratchet ("the end of the road"), Newfoundland. Her alcoholic "Ma" is perennially banished from the house, and "Da" works "nowheres near year-round" since the government closed the local cod fishery. Her shoes are tight, her coat shabby, and her house plain. A "trinity" of female bullies terrorizes her, and she struggles with schoolwork. Prinny sees the bright side, though, taking comfort in the "right pretty" Newfoundland barrens, the sea, the feral cats in Abe Murphy's barn, and Virginia Euwer Wolff's Make Lemonade (Henry Holt, 1993/VOYA October 1993), a bit of bibliotherapy that promises to improve Prinny's reading, as well as her confidence. Religion also echoes through the text as a source of solace, as does the prospect of a friendship with "come-from-away" Laice Hadden, whose all-too-perfect image is compromised when a secret is revealed. The world of MacLean's stand-alone sequel to The Nine Lives of Travis Keating (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008) features many of the hallmarks of contemporary young adult fiction, from Prinny's dysfunctional family and indifferent teachers to the novel's suggestions of child abuse. What sets this book apart is its vivid setting and MacLean's compelling use of local dialect to capture the distinctive culture of an isolated maritime community. She creates relatable characters that resonate with broader social, historical, and political contexts. MacLean tells a good story, too, offering a unique perspective into a troubled Newfoundland childhood. Reviewer: Christina Miller

Jill MacLean's life has always drawn on experience in her life. Her books are set in Newfoundland, where her son and his family now live. Over the years, she's canoed, kayaked, hiked and snowmobiled there, traveled the coves by boat, and stayed in the outports. Little did Jill realize at the time that these experiences could all be called “research,” or that her love of the province would translate into words.