Alive and Well in Prague NY

Booklist Reviews 2008 May #2
When Matisse’s sculptor dad develops Parkinson’s disease, he can no longer work to his satisfaction, and the family moves from New York City to tiny, upstate Prague. Stunned by living in a place where the only pizza parlor “didn’t even have sun-dried tomatoes as a topping,” and embarrassed and scared by her father’s quickly worsening illness, Matisse falls into a serious funk. Her new high school is lame, the other students are limited and boring, and many are downright mean. When she connects with new friend Violet, the two eventually manage to grow toward helpful self-knowledge; meantime, aspiring organic farmer Hal begins to seem less and less like the clueless hick Matisse had assumed. The heroine’s strong, clear voice and heartbreaking vulnerability propel the story forward, engaging the reader from the start. Maybe things turn around a little too neatly at the end, but that won’t bother fans of character-driven fiction seasoned with both romance and angst. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.
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