Lena by Jacqueline Woodson
Feb. 9th, 2010 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainbowunicorn_readsI honestly thought this was an LGBT book, since I read the wrong blurb at the back. The blurb was for some other book by Woodson, but apparently she gets a lot of awards for her writing. I took a chance on this book, since it just costs Php10.00 and it was hardbound, no less, and seemed interesting.
I finished it in half a day, because true enough, Ms. Woodson is a gifted storyteller. This book is about how Lena, a 13-year-old girl and her younger sister ran away from home to escape their father, who has been sexually abusing them. Sounds depressing? Well it is, but Woodson manages to insert such feistiness and courage in her characters that you get this impression that things might change for the better for these two brave girls.
Unlike other authors (I won't name names), Woodson refuses to dwell into the graphic details, instead relying on carefully-strung words, like how their father "smiled at them with a smile meant for my mother" instead of the usual nitty-gritty descriptions.
It was a short read, but quite meaty. Woodson knows when to expound, like in her descriptions of how these girls could still find pleasure in the simplest things, and when to leave things to the reader's imagination. Her characters stay with you long after you've finished turning the pages. Is it wrong to like a book tackling such a delicate taboo topic? Because I quite like how that issue was handled by Ms. Woodson here, in a book for young adults, no less.
What I think: 8 unicorns
I finished it in half a day, because true enough, Ms. Woodson is a gifted storyteller. This book is about how Lena, a 13-year-old girl and her younger sister ran away from home to escape their father, who has been sexually abusing them. Sounds depressing? Well it is, but Woodson manages to insert such feistiness and courage in her characters that you get this impression that things might change for the better for these two brave girls.
Unlike other authors (I won't name names), Woodson refuses to dwell into the graphic details, instead relying on carefully-strung words, like how their father "smiled at them with a smile meant for my mother" instead of the usual nitty-gritty descriptions.
It was a short read, but quite meaty. Woodson knows when to expound, like in her descriptions of how these girls could still find pleasure in the simplest things, and when to leave things to the reader's imagination. Her characters stay with you long after you've finished turning the pages. Is it wrong to like a book tackling such a delicate taboo topic? Because I quite like how that issue was handled by Ms. Woodson here, in a book for young adults, no less.
What I think: 8 unicorns