Pieces of Georgia by Jen Bryant

I'm trying to remember what it was like six years ago

when we were a family

and Daddy was happy

and you were here.

Open at the first page of this book. Hold on there are 62 chapters! Is this a long book? No it only has 176 pages.  How can there be 62 chapters?  Keep turning the pages.... YES it is verse novel.  You may know how much I adore this format.

Georgia's mum has died. She is okay. Her dad is doing his best. They live in a trailer park and this is okay too.  But at school her name has been added to the 'at risk' list and so once a week Georgia has to spend time with the school counselor. Mrs Yocum can see Georgia just cannot talk about her mum so she has suggested Georgia might like to write down her thoughts in a diary a few times a week.

"Then all of a sudden she asked me if I 
missed you. She never
asked me that before, and I couldn't make the words
come out of my mouth, they seemed to be
stuck in my throat, or maybe they were just tangled up
with the rabbit I seemed to have swallowed
that started kicking the sides of my stomach
desperate to get out."

On the morning of her thirteenth birthday Georgia receives a mystery gift. It is a letter:

"Dear Miss McCoy:
Enclosed please find your annual membership card, which entitles you to all privileges listed below and which expire one year from date of purchase."

What is this all about?  It is a free admission pass to the local museum. Who is it from? The card says 'anonymous."

Why is this significant?  Georgia is an artist, just like her mum. The museum is filled with wonderful art, in particular art by NC Wyeth and Jamie Wyeth. I have added a few at the end of this post and at the beginning of each section of the book there are quotes from these two artists. Georgia does have some free time after school each day because her dad, who is a builder, often arrives home quite late. So Georgia sets off to visit the museum and it becomes her happy place. She doesn't tell her dad.  She writes to her mum in her diary and explains:

"I imagine you went to art museums in Savannah,
and may you even went to some here in Pennsylvania, and
maybe
you even went to the Brandywine River Museum.
And if you did, that would be
another reason Daddy wouldn't like me going there,
wouldn't want one more thing to remind him
that right up to the week you died,
what you liked to do best
was dance your pencil across a blank page
and make something come alive."

At school her art talent has been noticed by Miss Benedetto - she is one of those very special teachers that you just want to hug. Miss Benedetto enters Georgia in a program to foster creative talents. Georgia needs to produce a portfolio of five pieces of her art.

Georgia lives a small life but all around her she finds inspiration. She has her best friend Tiffany who spends too much time obsessing about competitive sports, her beautiful dog Blake, friendship with the men who work with her dad at the building site and her regular job caring for show horses on a nearby farm. All of these things, along with the art in the museum, form the inspiration for her portfolio.

This is a very personal story. Georgia pours her heart out to her mum in her diary and over time Georgia changes and so do the people around her.

Look at the beautiful language used here. Four short lines packed with emotion.

"that sometimes living with Daddy's sadness,
and a hyper hunting dog,
and the ghost of my mother,
and a super-athletic best friend
was just too much."

Waiting for her dad to talk about her mum:

"I have learned to watch him, like you might watch
a slow leak from a faucet. Sometimes it takes forever
before you see a singe drip,
and it you time it right, you can catch it in your had,
but you gotta be quick."

I am not sure I would use this book with a whole class.  It might better suit a small book club group or just an individual reader but I did find a set of teaching themes and ideas on the publisher web site.

Here is some of the art that inspired Georgia:

The Guardians by NC Wyeth

In the Crystal Depths by NC Wyeth

Pot by Jamie Wyeth

Jen Bryant lists all the awards for this book on her web site where you can also find details of her other books including Six Dots: A story of young Louis Braille; A splash of red: the life and art of Horace Pippin; and A river of words: The story of William Carlos Williams.

Her voice is natural and plainspoken and she thinks about things carefully as she moves forward in her life. The moment in which she finds out who gave her the museum membership is moving and lovely and is the perfect signature on this affecting work of art. Kirkus