ONE OF THOSE HIDEOUS BOOKS WHERE THE MOTHER DIES by Sonya Sones

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sones, Sonya. 2004. ONE OF THOSE HIDEOUS BOOKS WHERE THE MOTHER DIES. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0689858205

PLOT SUMMARY

Ruby is a teenage girl who suddenly finds herself uprooted from the life she has always known and separated from her Mother, friends, and boyfriend.  After her mother dies, Ruby is sent to live with a father that was never there for her before and to attend school with other privileged teens.  Determined to be bitter, Ruby is reluctant to acknowledge her father’s efforts but finds she can relate to him.  When she learns the truth of his absence, her relational walls begin to fall and she slowly opens up to her new father, friends, and even Wyatt, the “Brad Pitt wannabe” from her dream interpretation class.       

                                                              

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A novel in poetic free verse, this story is an easy read and utilizes both short lines and long lines. The rhythm requires times of sentence-long speech as well as dramatic pauses suitable to any young girl’s life story.  As Ruby journals through her experience, the novel incorporates intrapersonal and interpersonal dialog, letters, and even conversations with her dead mother. Different fonts are used to emphasize the battle and confusion going on in her head as well as for the letters from back home.  The language Sones uses is reflective of the typical teenager, especially when Ruby expresses her feelings.  For example, Ruby said “She’ll die when she sees yours,” “I swear to God,” and “it made me feel like such a moron.”  The language also provides the reader with a mental picture of her new over-the-top and dramatic life: her father’s name, “Whip,” and her new bedroom being “literally the room of [her] dreams.” Throughout the verses, the reader can feel the sense of desperation in Ruby through the language.  “I just give up,” “I’m not that depressed,” and “You traitor, you deserter” are just a few of the lines that Ruby expresses.  As she works through her new venture, the language, emotions, and feelings change.  “Wow… And I fling my arms around both of them,” “and the three of us crack up.” Emotions of depression, anger, and sadness are replaced with excitement, joy and anticipation… and the verses shout it to the reader.

REVIEW EXCERPTS

KIRKUS REVIEWS – “It’s a hugely artificial form, but its free acknowledgment thereof (“my life better not turn out to be like one of those hideous books where the mother dies and so the girl has to go live with her absentee father . . . ”) allows the text, and Ruby, to explore the possibilities behind the fantasy.”

Publishers Weekly - "winning portrayal of a teenage girl's loves and losses."

Iowa Teen Award

CONNECTIONS

*Read the novel with other similar poetic novels such as JINX by Margaret Wild and KEESHA’S HOUSE by Helen Frost.  Students can compare and contrast the novels.

*Discuss first impressions: hers on her father and friends.

*Have students write a similar poem about themselves.  They could include intrapersonal thought as well as dialog and letters. 

*Identify language that shows imagery and provokes emotion.

*Students could write the next poem that would come after the ending.  What happens next?