Saving Francesca

Zusatztext "Sparkling dialogue and engaging characters...Francesca’s messy! credible array of emotions and problems will keep readers absorbed to the last! satisfying line."-- Kirkus Reviews ! Starred "A rich exploration of maturation! identity! family! and friendship." —The Bulletin! Starred "Readers will applaud the realistic complexity in the relationships here! the genuine love between the characters! as well as Francesca's ultimate decision to save herself."-- Publishers Weekly ! Starred "Teens will relate to this tender novel and will take to heart its solid messages and realistic treatment of a very real problem."-- School Library Journal ! Starred Informationen zum Autor Melina Marchetta lives in Sydney, Australia, where she is a teacher. She is also the author of Looking for Alibrandi , which received numerous awards and was released as a major Australian film. Saving Francesca is her second novel. Klappentext Before there was Eleanor and Park, there was Francesca and Will. A compelling story of romance, family, and friendship, with humor and heart, perfect for fans of If I Stay, The Spectacular Now, and Looking for Alaska. Francesca is stuck at St. Sebastian's, a boys' school that pretends it's coed by giving the girls their own bathroom. Her only female companions are an ultra-feminist, a rumored slut, and an impossibly dorky accordion player. The boys are no better, from Thomas, who specializes in musical burping, to Will, the perpetually frowning, smug moron that Francesca can't seem to stop thinking about. Then there's Francesca's mother, who always thinks she knows what's best for Francesca-until she is suddenly stricken with acute depression, leaving Francesca lost, alone, and without an inkling of who she really is. Simultaneously humorous, poignant, and impossible to put down, this is the story of a girl who must summon the strength to save her family, her social life, and-hardest of all-herself. Melina Marchetta is the Printz-winning author of Jellicoe Road, as well as Looking for Alibrandi and Finnikin of the Rock.Chapter 1 This morning, my mother didn’t get out of bed. It meant I didn’t have to go through one of her daily pep talks which usually begin with a song that she puts on at 6.45 every morning. It’s mostly 70s and 80s retro crap, anything from ‘I Will Survive’ to some woman called Kate Bush singing, ‘Don’t Give Up’. When I question her choices she says they’re random, but I know that they are subliminal techniques designed to motivate me into being just like her. But this morning there is no song. There is no advice on how to make friends with the bold and the interesting. No twelve point plan on the best way to make a name for myself in a hostile environment. No motivational messages stuck on my mirror urging me to do something that scares me every day. There’s just silence. And for the first time all year I go to school and my only agenda is to get to 3.15. School is St Sebastian’s in the city. It’s a predominately all-boys’ school that has opened its doors to girls in Year Eleven for the first time ever. My old school, St Stella’s, only goes to Year Ten and most of my friends now go to Pius Senior College, but my mother wouldn’t allow it because she says the girls there leave with limited options and she didn’t bring me up to have limitations placed upon me. If you know my mother, you’ll sense there’s an irony there, based on the fact that she is the Queen of the Limitation Placers in my life. My brother, Luca, is in Year Five at Sebastian’s so my mother figured it would be convenient for all of us in the long run and my dad goes along with it because no one in my family has ever pretended that my mother doesn’t make all the decisions. There are thirty of us girls at Sebastian’s and I want so much not to do the teenage angst thing, ...

Product details

• Authors: Melina Marchetta
• Publisher: Random House Childrens Books US
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 09.05.2006
• EAN: 9780375829833
• ISBN: 978-0-375-82983-3
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 135 mm x 205 mm x 20 mm
• Subject: Children's and young people's books > Young people's books from 12 years of age