Junebug is having a rough summer. Usually it’s her favorite time of year, her family coming together to put on plays at the summer playhouse her father runs. Usually, the theater is the only place where she feels she belongs, during the school year she’s an outsider, a weirdo, but at the theater she feels a part of something special. But this year is different. Her mother has moved back to her grandmother’s farm and her father is completely entranced with a much younger actress. Her older sister Stella is getting ingenue roles while Junebug works props and runs errands for the cast. But her summer is even more threatened when a know-it-all boy shows up. At first she doesn’t mind his stutter and encyclopedic knowledge of the theater too much, but when she realizes her father is spending more time with him than he is with her, she becomes jealous and it brings out the worst in her.
Each chapter starts with Junebug’s wish about how her life would be followed by the trials and tribulations of her actual existence. I thought this would irritate me but the daydream parts are brief enough that they don’t interfere with the rest of the story. While the character with Asperger’s Syndrome is not a major part of the book, Junebug’s understanding of what it is to be different follows a trajectory that many readers will understand.
Great for: Theater kids. All wanna-be stage actors will enjoy the theater rich world created by Henson with it’s myriad of Shakespeare references. Junebug’s role as the ignored younger sister will also speak to some. That said, I’m not sure this has a huge audience, as it reads a bit young for teens, and yet teens are the most likely to have the theater knowledge shared within.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – Junebug’s mother’s pregnancy is mentioned. Junebug’s parents have separated, and Junebug spends a lot of time wondering if her father is involved with someone else, or if there are other reasons for the split.
Profanity – “weirdo”, “merde” which they explain is French for …. (the ….never being filled in, but just so you know, it’s French for shit), “stupid,” “dumb,”
Death, Violence and Gore – The book opens with Junebug’s father being taken away on a stretcher after suffering a heart attack. There are prop daggers and swords. Mama Duvall shoots moles. In telling about past events, Junebug explains that her grandfather died of a heart attack. Because it’s about the theater, there are references to various deaths/murders in other plays, like MacBeth or Medea’s murdering of her own children or a character in The Seagull committing suicide, a play where a man allows his wife to die in his place. There’s a brief aside about a goat who lost it’s mother. In discussing playwrights, they mention that Marlowe was killed in a brawl. Another character has a parent who died in a car accident.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – Junebug fetches cigarettes for someone.
Frightening or Intense Things – Junebug’s parents separate but do not divorce. The fact that the reconcile may put some parents off of this book since many couples do not reconcile and they may not want to raise false hopes.
