Speed of Life

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Pub Date 01 Apr 2017 | Archive Date 10 Nov 2017
SOURCEBOOKS Jabberwocky | Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Description

What happens when the keeper of your most embarrassing secrets starts dating your dad?

Sofia wonders if 14 might be the worst possible age to lose your mom. Talking with her dad about puberty and s-e-x is super-awkward (even though he is a gynecologist). And when she wants to talk about her mom, her friends don't know what to say and her dad gets sad.

When Sofia discovers Dear Kate, an advice columnist from Fifteen magazine, she’s grateful to have someone to confide in about everything from crushes to mourning—someone who is completely, wonderfully anonymous. It feels ideal—until Sofia’s dad introduces her to his new girlfriend, Katherine Baird, a.k.a., Dear Kate…

This fresh, coming-of-age story is the ideal book for 11-to-14- year-old fans of Rebecca Stead and Ali Benjamin.

What happens when the keeper of your most embarrassing secrets starts dating your dad?

Sofia wonders if 14 might be the worst possible age to lose your mom. Talking with her dad about puberty and...


Advance Praise

"Perceptive, funny and moving...I laughed out loud and I teared up while reading this novel. I will eagerly place it on my daughter’s bookshelf, so that she, like Sofia, can find her own resilience and voice in our painful, joyful, speeding world." -New York Times Book Review


“The Speed of Life is the kind of book that you want to read speedily, all at once, because the characters are so engaging, the voice of the narrator pitch perfect, the situations convincingly real and raw, the humor and liveliness of the prose such fun to follow, and the feelings of that time in a teenager's life when everything can go from awful to awesome in a heartbeat are so vividly captured. You won't want to put it down. But my advice is slow down and savor this delightful book, full of cariño, funny and heartfelt, and (spoiler alert) not just for teens.” —Julia Álvarez, award-winning, bestselling author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies

“Carol Weston's Sofia moves beyond sorrow to all the possibilities of teen life in this wonderful book that takes us from loss to laughter.”—-Richard Peck, Newbery Gold Medalist for A Year Down Yonder

"There is a clear message that while time does not necessarily heal, it helps. The advice of not to fall too hard, too fast, or too far is real, not preachy. Complex characters and a strong voice make this one stand out.' -Kirkus, STARRED review

"Sofia’s growth—amid unexpected interest from boys, her first relationship, new additions to her family, and grief—is both relatable and moving." -Publishers Weekly, STARRED review


"This slice-of-life story echoes the author’s own experience as a teen magazine advice columnist and addresses all sorts of issues: death, grieving, moving, parental dating, parental sexuality, stepsibling conflict, new schools, self-esteem, and relationships. This refreshing work tackles a lot of themes, but eventually Sofia does get to a better place…Weston isn’t afraid to tackle the squirm-inducing questions common to high school freshmen too embarrassed to seek sound information from reliable sources." -School Library Journal, STARRED review

"This novel is jam-packed with important, dramatic, and inevitable aspects of adolescence, from pimples to periods to popularity…Weston draws heavily on her years as “Dear Carol” at Girls’ Life magazine, creating a solid, affecting tale of maturing and coming to grips with one’s reality." -Booklist, STARRED review

"Perceptive, funny and moving...I laughed out loud and I teared up while reading this novel. I will eagerly place it on my daughter’s bookshelf, so that she, like Sofia, can find her own resilience...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781492654490
PRICE $16.99 (USD)
PAGES 352

Average rating from 96 members


Featured Reviews

Sofia's mother passed away suddenly, and now that eight months have passed, all of her friends think that she should be over her loss, but she's not. Her mother taught at the private school she attends, and she and her father are going to have to leave their apartment, which is owned by the school. Her friend Kiki's divorced mother seems to be putting the moves on her father, and everything is just too much to handle. Sofia writes to the advice columnist Dear Kate with some of her problems and is surprised when she gets an answer back! She writes to Kate when things get really bad, but when it turns out that her father met the columnist at Sofia's school and is dating her, things are a bit awkward. Sofia doesn't think her father should be dating, but Kate is as nice as her daughter Alexa is difficult. When Sofia and her father start traveling out to the suburbs to visit Kate, Sofia meets Sam, who is cute and nice. Things are a little complicated, but when the school apartment has to be vacated, Kate invites the two to live with her. Things don't always go smoothly, but Sofia realizes that life goes on at a rapid pace, even when we aren't quite ready to keep up.

The author of this book has written for Girl's Life since 1994, so thoroughly understands the teen mind. This book does have a lot of very frank talk about "health class topics", although nothing is sensationalized. This is not the sort of thing that I enjoy reading, but is definitely informative to young readers who may have embarrassing questions about these very topics and lack adults in whom they can confide.

The issue of parents dating and blended families comes up in real life far more often than parents dying, so it was good to see how Alexa and Sofia got along and eventually made some sort of peace with each other. Tweens often move to new schools, so Sofia's transition from a small private school to a suburban public one will intrigue readers.

This book read very much like Phyllis Reynold Naylor's Alice books, which started over thirty years ago, or Judy Blume's Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, which is over forty years old, so it is high time there were new novels that address teen issues with helpful, unflinching advice. Keep in mind that younger readers definitely might have questions after reading this book and will hopefully seek out supportive adults to answer them.

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