soup of the day: say the word by jeannine garsee

photo by pfaff

OMG!! Have you heard?

It’s not green day, it’s purple day!!

WORD flying through the grapevine is that Jeannine Garsee, known around Live Journal Land as , has a brand new young adult novel out today — Say the Word (Bloomsbury, 2009)!

    SAY THE WORD by Jeannine Garsee,
    (Bloomsbury, 2009), Young Adult Fiction, 368 pp.

Woo Hoo!! On the heels of her very popular and successful, Before, After, and Somebody In Between (Bloomsbury, 2007), Say the Word has been generating positive buzz among loyal fans. They are anxious to read this compelling coming-of-age story about 17-year-old Shawna Gallagher, who must cope with an overwhelming array of problems during her senior year.

The world expects perfection from her, and for the most part, that’s what they get. She dates the right boys, gets good grades, and follows her father’s every rule. But when her lesbian mother (who deserted her years ago) dies, it’s more than perfect Shawna can take. Suddenly, anger from being abandoned ten years ago is resurfacing along with Shawna’s embarrassment over her mother’s other family. As she confronts family secrets and questions from the past, Shawna realizes there’s a difference between doing the perfect thing and doing the right thing.

Say the Word has already garnered some glowing reviews. Kirkus notes, "Garsee manages to give every character depth and dimension without falling into the trap of making the children too perfect and angelic and the adults imperfect to the point where the reader loses sympathy for them," and Publisher’s Weekly says, "Garsee’s second novel hits the ground running and never lets up." Sounds like a lot of interesting storylines and plot twists to keep readers glued to the page!

photo by Fields of Cake.

I hope you’re in a grapenutty mood today, because in honor of Jeannine, we’ve concocted a special soup that’s sure to make your friends purple with envy. Please join in and stomp your feet in celebration if you like. Whether you’re shy one grape or two, let’s throw a big bunch of congratulations out to Jeannine for a job well done!

Today’s Special: Grape Gumbo (guaranteed to make you nuts).