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262 pages

When I saw Minnie posted for review request, I knew I wanted to review it even before I read the preview. There was just something about it that appealed to me and drew me in. In fact, I put dibs on the book before I read the preview, and then realized I had better do my homework first and find out exactly what I was getting myself into. My instincts were spot on, because as I read the preview, I knew the protagonist for Minnie was my kind of character.

Sadey Leach has reached her senior year of high school, is barely scraping by in her classes, and her ability to graduate is in question because she has not completed the compulsory number of volunteer hours required during her high school career. Sadey is very Goth girl in her appearance, black hair, black clothes, heavy dark makeup, and has an irreverent and uncaring attitude she projects to the world. With an attitude as black as her appearance, and bouts of underage drinking and experimentation with pills, Sadey Leach appears to be on a self-destructive path with no redeeming features.

Minnie is a fluffy grandmotherly type of seventy-nine who resides at Forest Hills Convalescent Hospital and is confined to a wheelchair. Minnie is very lonely, as she does not frequently have visitors and has been praying that God will send her a friend to give her some company. On Sadey’s first volunteer day, she wheels Minnie, who says she feels like Queen Wilhelmina when someone pushes her chair, to the table for dinner.

     “This is Hell! This is Hell!” Sadey said behind clenched teeth as a resident’s fart entered her vicinity.
     “Please don’t say that.” Sadey glanced down at Queen Wilhelmina as she fought with a bib.
     “What?”
     Wilhelmina sat as straight as she could. “Young lady, God frowns upon swearing.”
     Sadey bent down close to the woman’s ear. “I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to work for twenty-four hours because I want to get out of this Hell-hole called Woodridge.” Sadey fastened her bib and moved on, rolling her eyes so hard she thought she damaged the nerves.
     Wilhelmina felt the intended sting by the girl’s words. Lord, when will You bless me with that friend? She knew that getting something as grand as a friend wouldn’t come easy and without complications like the girl with thick makeup masking her face like an oil change gone wrong.

As the character of Sadey develops, we find her public persona is simply a defense mechanism against the situations in her life. Saddled with an alcoholic mother who has an endless parade of men coming through the house, and the responsibility of caring for her three year old sister because her mother didn’t want the baby and refuses to care for her, Sadey is barely hanging on. All of her mother’s income goes to alcohol and cheap cigarettes, so Sadey finds odd jobs where she can to help provide food for herself and Cora. The closest thing to a mother-daughter relationship Sadey has experienced in her life, is when her mother left discarded magazines for Sadey to read. Relying on her neighbors, Mira and Darius Finn, to watch Cora while she volunteered at the nursing home alleviated one of the issues in Sadey’s complicated life.

After a few more visits at the Convalescent Center, Minnie invites Sadey to unburden herself to a willing listener when she’s ready, and shortly after Sadey takes her up on the offer. Through their growing relationship, Sadey learns that while Minnie looks the part of the archetypal grandmother, Minnie has had a hard past, yet has a sweet soul and a positive attitude toward life. Sadey becomes the friend Minnie had been praying for, and through Minnie’s influence, Sadey is changing not only her appearance, but her attitude and outlook on life.

Ashley Lane spins a tale which has all of the elements of a good story; love, loss, growth, relationships, hardship, drawing the reader in from page one. As I read Minnie I was reminded of the following quote:

A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone’s written the story. He’s supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment. ~ Jack Vance

In a few broad strokes, Lane paints the picture of two souls who were meant to meet, and the impact they have on one another ripples out to their surroundings. Minnie espouses good Christian values without being preachy, and shows how overcoming bad circumstances is possible. It contains a message of hope and love which is uplifting. Even the cover, though simple, conveys a message to the reader. A sunny background, a wheelchair, and a butterfly, all add up to a message of hope and the circle of life. Ashley Lane delicately and deftly depicts characters at both ends of the spectrum, one entering adulthood, and one nearing the end. She captures the feelings of loneliness and invisibility which plague our aging population, and equally well portrays teenage angst at its height. The peripheral characters are also excellently portrayed and I feel like I know them; they could all live in my neighborhood. I laughed and cried, and the characters have stayed with me days after finishing the book, which is what we look for from a good read.

Preview Minnie by Ashley Lane

DeGrassi Junior High, DeGrassi High, Saved by the Bell, 90210, Dawson’s Creek…the list goes on and on of irresistible melodramas which have sought to capture the essence of teen life through the years, often with a high school setting since those four years of a teenager’s life can certainly be ever changing.  I know mine were.  These days, our brains can’t fathom these made up tales and we wanted to hear from real people, people like us, so we handed kids a camera and told them to go film their “real” stories.  But we’ve discovered reality isn’t any better.  But that’s television!  What books were your reading in high school?  Were there any that stick out in your mind, that possibly changed your life at that time?

I was stuck in a Stephen King phase in high school, determined to read every word he’d written even if it took me four years to do it.  So, to research what kids are reading these days, like any computer literate American, I Googled it.  When googling “teen novel,” I was quickly redirected to several best selling lists composed by various people at Amazon.com….Princess Diaries, some girl named Alice, Harry Potter, the Twilight series…what ever happened to Blubber, Freckle Juice, and It’s Me Margaret?

Back then, it was “just say no,” pimples, and popularity.  These days it’s teen pregnancy, guns in school, and more drugs.  And even though more stories these days are based on fantasy and vampires, there is one theme that hasn’t changed through the years. Acceptance. Kids till vy for popularity and attention.  They all want to be #1.  That’s why I found Robert Toonkel’s book, Chappaqua, to be a classic take on those old themes from what teens were reading yesterday but still a timeless fresh, and eye-opening, look at teens in today’s high school setting.

Based on the cover alone – a pale robin eggshell blue with a picture of a statue, obviously some important dignity somewhere, and dark blue letters with a subtitle that reads “Slight imperfections in America’s perfect town” – you’d probably think this was going to be a history lesson on some corrupt political figure or East coast war that textbooks forgot.  Even the simple title, Chappaqua, sets you up for either an unknown community piece no one but locals would care about or some piece of Kennedy-like Peyton Place gossip.  But all of these assumptions are completely wrong.

Instead, it is the story of Katie Fitzpatrick.  She’s about to be a senior, and she’s the girl everyone else desires to be.  She has perfect grades, great looks, lots of friends, she’s an all-star athlete and writer for the school paper.  She’s the center of attention among the girls and the guys. It’s the all-American dream for any teen on the verge of their final year of high school.  But sometimes people like that probably wish they were dreaming.

Now, Katie may sound like a predictable character sketch we all know (or personally knew while in high school), but Toonkel paints his characters with such realism and belief that it makes this story new all over again. The author pushes his narrative forward with excellent use of dialogue, interesting description, and a touch of humor.  Imagine over hearing bits of a hundred conversations in the hallway between classes or at prom, but being able to understand everything with great accuracy.

The mod system, which always included “J mod” for homeroom, had given rise to a new language on the Greeley campus, one whose mastery required both time and skill. Visitors from other schools might think they were on another planet when they heard students asking one another, “Can we do this during QRS?” or “Do we have five-mod biology today?” Plenty of Greeley students had graduated with an advanced knowledge of calculus or chemistry, but no idea whether a TUV class began at 12:50 or 12:55.

Toonkel uses his setting, the town of Chappaqua, as an ideal place where such a perfect student can grow up in the perfect town.  But, he throws a wrench into its well oiled wheels which sends Katie’s real life dream spinning out of control.  Conflict builds as Katie falls deeper into trouble after one single “life-altering” event, and seeks understanding and guidance from the very community that denies anything could be wrong.  After all, they’ve put Katie on a pedestal and made her the center of attention (imagery conveyed quite beautifully on the book cover).  How could anything be wrong?

There are valuable lessons here for both parents and teens, as we experience one young girl’s drastic fall from the top.  Sure, most of us didn’t like the cool and the popular if we weren’t part of them, but they may still need people to turn to when they aren’t crying wolf.  Regretting reaching out to them after it’s too late is not something any teen should suffer from. After all, no matter how much we excell at, we still all breathe the same air and need a friend to count on from time to time.

Although quite long and still in need of a bit of editing, Toonkel’s story is original and well thought out. The last chapter alone will have you thinking about Katie for a long time after you’ve closed the cover. Thanks to Robert Toonkel for creating an excellent and inspiring read for teens of today, and yesterday.  This book is a lesson in life every teen shouldn’t learn the hard way.