Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1522387 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 172 pages

From Publishers Weekly
They're unlikely friends-cheerful Michael, who lives with his aunt and uncle in Holland, and withdrawn Judith, who has a horrifying secret life of abuse at the hands of her unmarried mother. The winner of two awards from the Dutch Children's Jury, this wrenching novel is almost unbearably heartbreaking in its graphic depiction of Judith's suffering: "The fourth time, the lock gave, and her mother tumbled into the room. In her hand was the metal pipe from the vacuum cleaner. 'Please... Mommy please...' Judith whispered tonelessly. But the first blows were already raining down on her."Adults in contact with Judith are suspicious but willing to accept her excuses for her injuries; at last Judith and Michael's teacher joins forces with Michael to help her. An elegant parallel construction finds Michael struggling to give his estranged father a second chance and Judith struggling to realize her mother will not change. Michael's emotional bruises will heal, while Judith's prognosis is hopeful but not assured. Not a one-note issue book, this sophisticated, disturbing story presents its characters with sympathy for their vulnerabilities. Some readers may need adult guidance to cope with the strong content, but ultimately the message here is optimistic, suggesting that even the direst circumstances can be overcome. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9?No matter how hard Judith works to keep the apartment clean and to care for her brother, any look or remark can trigger her mother's uncontrolled rages that end in verbal abuse and painful beatings. Frequent absenteeism from school, shyness, and a peculiar style of dress set the girl apart from her classmates. When she meets a new student, Michael, she is warmed for the first time by real friendship. Although he welcomes her into his hectic, happy homelife and reveals his own learning problems and estrangement from his father, Judith continues to hide her own terrible truth. Her teacher's requests for a parent conference alert her mother to unwanted scrutiny, and the woman hurriedly moves the family to a new neighborhood. The novel ends on a hopeful note; after another vicious beating, Judith leaves home and turns to Michael and her teacher for help. Graphic in its violent portrayal of abuse, this Dutch import is not for the squeamish. Also, it seems unbelievable that the girl could be so constantly, visibly battered without someone noticing sooner and acting on her behalf. One shudders at the psychological effects for both children?the girl, hammered to a pulp, and her baby brother, witness to her degradation. Choppy translation jars the narrative flow at times, but the Technicolor horror of Judith's bruised life will not fade easily in readers' minds.?Alice Casey Smith, Sayreville War Memorial High School, NJ
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 6^-10. Judith misses school often and keeps to herself. Oddly, she wears a turtleneck even on warm days and frequently has an excuse for getting out of gym. Yet, the mysterious girl reminds schoolmate Michael of a friend who had helped him break out of his shell of loneliness and inadequacy. As Michael befriends Judith and gradually chips away at her secrets, he finds a girl emotionally and physically bruised, and only when it's almost too late does he realize that Judith's mother is to blame. Set in Holland, Bruises is a wrenching portrait of a family in crisis. Although Judith's mother has her own demons, the reader's sympathies never waver from the winsome daughter and her struggle, eventually successful, to wrest herself from a destructive home. Some plot twists stretch plausibility a little--Michael's father's transformation from a psychologically abusive parent, for example. And although we are impatient for the adults in Judith's world to pick up on what is going on at home and act more decisively to help her, their hesitation and dim realization of her suffering are, perhaps, what is most realistic of all. Anne O'Malley