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Trash

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Trash

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Overview

"Amid gritty free verse, Darrow interweaves beautifully crafted forms such as the villanelle, sestina and pantoum, whose intricate patterns suit Sissy's mournful voice." — Publishers Weekly

For sixteen-year-old Sissy and her brother Boy, trash is a reminder of one too many sorry foster placements they've endured, a way of life they can't wait to escape. Now on the run in search of their big sister Raynell, ironically they are forced to rely on their trash-picking skills for sustenance and shelter. Reunited at last with Raynell in St. Louis, Boy and Sissy shed their old identities, reinvent themselves as graffiti artists, and splash their new names on city bridges and walls. But one night's expedition goes horribly wrong, and Sissy looks again to trash, this time as the beginning of something artful and beautiful.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763626242
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	08/08/2006
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	821,400
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 8.55(h) x 0.72(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Sharon Darrow is the author of The Painters of Lexieville and Through the Tempests Dark and Wild: A Story of Mary Shelley, Creator of Frankenstein, illustrated by Angela Barrett. Sharon Darrow lives in Plainfield, Vermont.

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Editorial Reviews

Darrow articulates, in first-person verse, 16-year-old Sissy's searing coming-of-age story. Sissy and 14-year-old Boy, sixth and seventh offspring of a mom too dissolute to name them, endure successive foster homes. Sissy's fondest recollections involve stable intervals with her loving older sister Raynell and her husband, Jobe (one of the narrators of Darrow's The Painters of Lexieville). But an act of vandalism lands the two back in the welfare system. Their latest home is with a strict, religious couple hauling rural trash, "Aunt" Lannie and volatile "Uncle Daddy" ("since you/ don't got one of your own"), who requires the children to help with the reeking collections. Uncle Daddy beats Boy for an imagined theft, and the two soon flee to Raynell, who "makes even the worst old place/ seem like a home filled with flowers" and settle into cramped St. Louis quarters. Sissy and Boy, innate artists, head out on night rambles and spray their new identities-graffiti-style-ever higher. One night, a rooftop misstep leads to Boy's death. The author inextricably links Sissy's journey to come to peace with his death with her drive as an artist (her medium, scavenged trash). Amid gritty free verse, Darrow interweaves beautifully crafted forms such as the villanelle, sestina and pantoum, whose intricate patterns suit Sissy's mournful voice. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 8 Up-Darrow began this tale of poverty in rural Arkansas in The Painters of Lexieville (Candlewick, 2003). Abandoned by their mother, Sissy Lexie, 16, and her younger brother, Boy, are looking for a lot more beauty than they are finding. They lived with their older sister, Raynell, until her husband lost his job; endured several foster homes; and are currently residing with the Fowlers, who force the teens to collect trash for their business. Although unhappy, the siblings find comfort in being together. When Boy gives Sissy a specially designed tattoo, their enraged foster parents beat them and they run away to St. Louis to find Raynell, who can now care for them. Settled into high school, they become "art bandits," roaming rooftops at night to spray their self-chosen "tags"-Skye and Atenz. When tragedy strikes, Sissy spirals downward into depression and self-destruction. Finally reconnecting with her belief in the importance of art in day-to-day life, she revives an old dream of attending art school and begins to face her grief. Sissy's poignant first-person narrative blends staccato verses with free-flowing prose. Readers will appreciate the characters' search for identity and efforts to find beauty in places not obvious. Suggest this title to readers who enjoyed Kathe Koja's The Blue Mirror (Farrar) or Martine Leavitt's Heck Superhero (Front St, both 2004), novels that also depict hope through art and self-expression on gritty urban streets.-Kelly Czarnecki, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg, NC Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

When their mother abandons Sissy (16) and her younger brother, Boy, their older sister, Raynell, and her husband, Jobe, care for them. But when Jobe loses his job, the kids must find another place. They live with a series of odd but often caring people, ending up with the Fowlers, who run a trash collection service. Sissy and Boy smell bad and are ostracized by the other kids in school. Eventually, they are abused by the Fowlers. They contact Raynell, who now lives in St. Louis, and the two hitchhike their way to her. Finally, the siblings feel at home and proceed to reinvent themselves. They meet up with "taggers," kids who graffiti their names with spray paint throughout the urban landscape. They rename themselves and calculate their risk as they go out at night to emblazon public spaces with their new artistically rendered identities. Their comfort doesn't last long when tragedy strikes, and Sissy is on her own again. Told as a narrative in poems and set mostly in the south, the story provides a window into the challenges and dreams of homeless or near homeless teens. The language, though rich, evocative and rhythmic, is bleak, with only glimpses of salvation and light. (Fiction. YA)

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