Friday, 15 April 2011

Trauma Queen by Barbara Dee

For Review: Barbara Dee
Published 19 April 2011

From Goodreads: Every tween girl knows what it's like to have a mom who can be a little embarrassing at times. But for Marigold, it goes way beyond embarrassing. Marigold's single mom is a performance artist, meaning she stages dramatic, wacky performances to express her personal beliefs. Things like wrapping herself in saran wrap for a piece on plastic surgery, or inviting people over in the middle of the night to videotape her sleeping. In fact, Marigold's mom's performances caused such a ruckus in their last town that the two of them, along with Marigold's little sister, have just had to move. Now Marigold's starting a new school, missing her best friend like crazy, and trying to fit in all over again in the shadow of a mom who's famous for all the wrong reasons. As if that's not bad enough, Marigold's mom takes on a new job--teaching drama at Marigold's school! Now all the kids know instantly just how weird her mom is, and Marigold's worried she'll never be able to have a friendship that can survive her mother.

Having read and loved This Is Me From Now On I jumped at the chance to review Trauma Queen. Infused with the same humour and charm, Trauma Queen is an absolute joy to read.

The story begins with Marigold's first day at her new school and on her mother's instruction she turns up in her pajamas.  Unfortunately Pajama Day was a month earlier!  Whoops! Marigold's mother is a performance artist and rather quirky - she seems to constantly embarrass and cause problems for Marigold, so when she gets a job at her new school , Marigold is rather alarmed.  Will there be chaos or will Marigold start to see her mother in a different light?

I love how Barbara Dee manages to combine humour with real issues, and create believable characters who I enjoy spending time with.  Marigold is really likeable and fun.  You can understand why she finds her mother embarrassing, but at the same time you can see something in her mother that she doesn't see yet.  I really liked her mother - I though her heart was always in the right place even if the way she went about things (sometimes) made them worse! And I loved her Gran.  There is a scene between her and Marigold that is particularly poignant and gives great insight into Marigold's mother.

I also loved her friends, especially Layla and Ethan.  I would have liked to have gotten to know both even more and am hoping for a sequel to Trauma Queen - I'm not ready to leave these characters just yet!

A great story about friendship and families, and realising that your parents are people too.  Thoroughly enjoyable!

7 comments:

Ynysawdre Elderly Residents Association said...

Great review. Is it a middle grade novel as I am always on the lookout for them in the school library

TheBookAddictedGirl said...

Brilliant review: this looks really good!

Cliona said...

This sounds great! Jut my kind of thing, as I love MG novels!

Barbara Dee said...

Sammee, what a lovely review! A million thanks!

Jules said...

Interesting review, this isn't one for me but it does sound good.

Jules x

Unknown said...

This sounds like a perfect book for the school library. I'm sure my tweeny girls will love it. Thanks for the heads up!

I Want To Read That said...

Emma - Yes it's aimed at 9-13 year olds. It is a US publication though - I don't know if that makes a difference to whether you can get it for the library? If you can I think it would definitely be a hit:)

Barbara - Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment - so glad you liked the review:)

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