Product Description

When Bee and Jacky remember and re-initiate their shameful childhood games, they open themselves to an accelerating spiral of despair, rage, grief, and, ultimately, for Bee, forgiveness and transformation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1977164 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-10
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .34" h x 5.04" w x 7.30" l, .24 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 104 pages

From Amazon.com
When Bee and her older brother Jacky were younger, they used to play a game in the woods near their grandparents' house. It was a war game in which Bee always played the wounded, and Jacky always played the savior: Bee "waited for Jacky to save her. Jacky called for more backup on his walkie-talkie, screamed out orders to the medics.... Then, after thrashing through the underbrush to get to where Bee had fallen, he dragged her to safety. He told her she would be all right, whatever wounds she had envisioned, however much blood had been lost."

Now it's 1975. Bee and Jacky are 14 and 17, and the family is preparing to return to the grandparents' home for a visit. But Jacky refuses to go, and Bee can't envision going back without her big brother. So the teens stay home alone for the weekend. After reminiscing about the time spent at her grandparents', Bee suddenly remembers that the scenes she and Jacky used to play out were actually much more than a game--part of the routine included Jacky lying on top of her and rocking back and forth. Bee's realization brings with it a flood of confusion and horror, all hauntingly displayed in the young girl's vivid hallucinations: "She saw a network of roots traveling across up and down [her back], balls and knots pushing up, hard and gnarled.... [She] ran her fingers into her hair, squeezed it at the roots until pine needles rained out and delicately fell around her feet, onto the bedspread."

Carolyn Coman, author of What Jamie Saw, a National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor book, portrays Bee's conflicting emotions--anger, shame, love, fear, and arousal--with exquisite grace and sparse, incisive prose. The ending is far from that of a made-for-TV movie about incest--there is no tidy summary, no panoramic cut to the sun rising on the suburbs, but there is transformation here, and forgiveness, and light. --Brangien Davis

From Publishers Weekly
PW said that this stark novel about sibling incest "is the literary equivalent of a Diane Arbus photograph: it presents a sharp, shocking picture of pathology, but leaves it to the audience to imagine the world beyond the frame." Ages 14-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-This brilliantly written novel centers around a critical weekend in the lives of a brother and sister who have an incestuous relationship. Bee Cooney, 13, is very much aware of the increasing strain that has developed between her 17-year-old brother Jacky and their disabled Vietnam veteran father and anxious, unassertive mother. Bee feels distanced from Jacky, too, and longs to show him that she is on his side. Events come to a head when he refuses to accompany the family to his grandparents' home in the next state. Bee remembers the woods behind her grandparents' house, where they lived for three years after their father came home wounded, as the setting for a war game the two children played-a game that culminated in mutual masturbation. After Bee's parents acquiesce to Jacky's plan to stay home, Bee faints and is allowed to stay with him. That night their physical relationship is resumed. Through the course of the weekend, Bee suffers hallucinations of a bear attacking her brother and of her body burning. Jacky finds her standing naked in their yard and treats her with tender solicitousness. Having passed through the worst of the crisis, Bee reaches a new understanding of the fear and anger her family has harbored. She can acknowledge Jacky's need to break away and reaches out to their nearly shattered father. This is neither an easy book to read nor does it suggest any neat resolutions. What Coman does offer, masterfully, is honesty, compassion, and even a glimmer of hope.
Miriam Lang Budin, Mt. Kisco Public Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.