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Title: Backwater by Joan Bauer ISBN: 0-698-11865-0 Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (23 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Bauer's latest needs some help...
Comment: The plot of Joan Bauer's latest novel, Backwater, will be intensely familiar to anyone who has read her books. Backwater suffers from this sameness, as well as from a certain forced feeling; it's [note CORRECT use of it-apostrophe-s] also hampered by *severe* editing problems.
The plot of Backwater will be extremely familiar to anyone who has read Squashed, Bauer's best book so far. Ivy Breedlove, a teenager on a mission (in this book, family history), succeeds despite opposition from her father (in this book, a lawyer) and the people around her (in this book, her extended family). Ivy's mother died when Ivy was six (as opposed to eight, which is how old Ellie was in Squashed). Ivy has been given a great deal of strength from her Great-Aunt Tib (as opposed to grandmother, as in Ellie's case). And so on. Frankly, I'd like to see Bauer use her undeniable sense of humor and writing skills on an entirely new plot.
That isn't to say, though, that this plot doesn't have its differences; it's just that most of those differences feel forced. Ivy Breedlove is as unusual as most of Bauer's protagonists, but so is everything around her and everything she does, including her aunt's bird city and most of her winter mountain trek. There wasn't anything usual anywhere in the book, and the cumulative effect of all this originality was a sense of total *un*reality; I was not able to suspend disbelief far enough to buy any of it.
Also, the editing in the first hardcover edition of this book was, quite simply, a *disaster*. There are dozens of mistakes in possessives alone (it's is used to mean belonging-to-it consistently throughout the book, not to mention single errors like parents used to mean belonging-to-parents), as well as some painful spellchecker spelling errors (words substituted for other words). There's also at least one place where editing errors interfere with the plot of the novel itself; look at the use of "Backwater" v. "Breedlove" in the Town Records scene. However, unlike the first edition, the paperback edition lists an editor, so I'm hoping that means these errors have been fixed.
The book does have a few saving graces, though; there's a great deal of humor, always a pleasure to encounter in YA novels, and there's some great descriptions of people and places. So, I'll say it again: Bauer does have talents, obvious ones, but her most recent novels simply don't display them to advantage.
This book is only worth reading if you've already read Squashed. If you haven't, read that instead. In fact, of all of Bauer's works, this one is probably the one that should be read *last*.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good, but not great
Comment: "Backwater", by Joan Bauer, was a good book, but not one of the best books I've read.
Teenage Ivy Breedlove hates living in her family of lawyers, because no matter what she wants, she is expected to be a lawyer too. Ivy loves researching her family's history, because besides her lawyer ancestors, there are the different, but interesting ones - the ones "stuck in the backwater". When Ivy hears about her "crazy" aunt Josephine, she knows she has to find her, and she starts on a journey up a mountain to meet her.
This was a fairly exciting, interesting book, but not my favorite for several reasons. First of all, the storyline was a pretty unrealistic - a girl leaving her family to find a long lost aunt. Also, the spelling and grammer really needed to be edited better during the making of this book! Even so, this book was an entertaining read, quite funny at times, though it wouldn't become one of my favorites.
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the best books of all times
Comment: This was definitely one of the greatest books that I've ever read. If you're a female looking for a good read check out Backwater about a girl trying desperately to get her father to understand that she's not just like the rest of her family. On a trip to meet her hermit aunt she ends up learning important life lessons about herself!
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Title: Hope Was Here (2001 Newbery Honor Book) by Joan Bauer ISBN: 0698119517 Publisher: Puffin Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Rules of the Road (Now in Speak!) by Joan Bauer ISBN: 0698118286 Publisher: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Squashed by Joan Bauer ISBN: 0698119177 Publisher: Puffin Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Thwonk by Joan Bauer ISBN: 0698119142 Publisher: Puffin Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star by Randy Powell ISBN: 0374479682 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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