Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Hicks, B. | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Dez is unusually neat. Her mom and dad are unusually messy. They like Cheez Whiz and swamps. Dez likes elegant food and grand pianos. How can she even be related to them? And how can Dez help her best friend, Jil, who's adopted and who will stop at nothing in order to meet her birth mom? What is it, exactly, that makes a parent "real," anyway? Get Real is about wanting a parent who is very different from the one you have. It's about discovering, "Who am I?"
Author Notes
Betty Hicks says, "I'm adopted, but I've never wanted to search for my birth parents. I did want to explore the different ways of affirming your own identity, adopted or not." She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, and is the author of Out of Order , praised as "humorous and insightful" by Publishers Weekly in a starred review.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-Eighth-graders Destiny and Jil joke about the differences between their families. Dez's English-professor father, weather-obsessed scientist mother, and younger brother keep their household messy and chaotic. The teen finds it remarkable that Jil doesn't realize she is lucky to have been adopted by perfect people whose luxurious home is always in order. Although her friend complains that she feels stifled, Dez is still shocked when Jil confides that she's meeting her birth mother, Jane, and her 10-year-old half sister, Penny. Dez counsels caution, but the more impulsive Jil is rapturous about her newfound family and chooses to spend holidays and the summer with them. When Jane falsely accuses Jil of shoplifting in order to protect Penny, the teen leaves, tries to live on her own until she can think of what to say to her parents, and gets Dez to join her. Hicks does a good job of conveying how difficult, tedious, and potentially dangerous it is for 13-year-olds to survive this way, even for a night or two. Jil finally acknowledges that her adoptive parents offer her what she needs-love, stability, and mature nurturing. The protagonist's longing to meet her birth family and quest to discover her identity are believable, but the girls' discussion of which parents are "real" is handled with little subtlety. Although the book captures two young people trying to work out relationships and may appeal to fans of realistic fiction, it is likely to be of special interest to adoptees.-Deborah Vose, Highlands Elementary School, Braintree, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Narrated by straight-thinking Dez, Hicks's (Out of Order) poignant novel is indisputably real from the start. A self-proclaimed "neat-oholic," this 13-year-old sometimes wonders how she can be related to her poetry-spewing Duke professor father, her environmental scientist mother and younger brother, whom she deems the "three most un-neat people in the history of the world." The spanking clean house of her best friend, Jil, poses the perfect contrast; Jil's seemingly perfect parents have everything filed away and labeled and their home holds a shiny grand piano. To Dez, the instrument embodies all that she holds sacred: "A piano is precise. Neat. Everything in its place. Every day." Though the narrator would give anything to own a piano and take lessons, Jil, who has both, could care less about it. Also rankling Dez is the fact that Jil is adopted, "which means she totally lucked into this awesome house and family." Yet emotional chaos invades Jil's carefully ordered life and by extension Dez's when the teen, unbeknownst to her adoptive parents, tracks down her birth mother. Dez begins to fear that she will lose her best friend. As Hicks describes how impulsive Jil and insightful Dez work through a discordant time, she shapes an honest story that contains resonant messages about identity, honesty, family and friendship. Ages 10-14. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Jil [sic], an adopted eighth-grader, wonders about her biological or "real" mom, while Dez, her best friend and the narrator of the story, wonders how a neatnik like her ended up in a family of slobs. In Hicks's perceptive, tender tale about what it really means to be a family, Jil makes contact with her birth mother and genetic half-sister, while Dez struggles to convince her poetry-spouting father and swamp-loving mother that she's responsible enough to stick with her decisions. Although Jil's experience with her biological family turns out to be more bitter than sweet, much of the narrative is laugh-out-loud funny, especially Dez's interaction with her professor father and scientist mother, a woman who "watches the weather channel like it's Sex and the City." Poignant and playful meld seamlessly, and the life lesson--that parents are the people who go out of their way to take care of you--is germane to adopted and biological children alike. (Fiction. 10-14) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Best friends Dez and Jil have polar-opposite families. Dez thinks the neat, organized Lewises are elegant and intriguing; Jil thinks the scattered, eccentric, academic Carters are cool. The parents seem like typically normal, weird adults to their offspring. Dez is completely baffled, however, when adopted Jil becomes obsessed with contacting her birth mother, ultimately opting to spend weekends and holidays with her newly discovered parent and her new little sister, Penny, rather than with the Lewises. Hicks avoids the temptation to be didactic, allowing the authentic voices of Jil and Dez to sort out their parent issues realistically. The girls' friendship is a successful vehicle for unearthing the complexities of adopted children's emotions and their families' dilemmas. More than that, though, Hicks offers a solid YA novel featuring strong characters, deep friendships, supportive families, and the joy and pain of growing up. --Frances Bradburn Copyright 2006 Booklist