Category: Young Adult
Publisher: Kids Can Press
ISBN-13: 9781554534326
Pub. Date: March 2009
Date Read: April 2009
"I feel like eating a whole bag of nachos. I feel like hitchhiking north to the end of the road. I feel like cutting off my eyelashes. Some days I can feel my chest ready to explode in all directors. It hurts. Nothing explodes. Then I don't feel anything. I just want to lie across my bead and wait for the moment to pass."
This moving story is about a young girl, Mira, who is grappling with feelings of loneliness. She lives in a small apartment with her mother, who is bent on controlling everything she does, her father is barely in the picture and she has no friends. For the almost fifteen year old, the only solace is found in the pages of books and her intense desire to one day become a wildlife painter.
Mira’s life changes though when a new girl, Cath, starts at her school. Cath is also one of the top students in art class but unlike Mira’s drawings, Cath’s burst with color. The two girls art and personalities couldn’t be any different and yet these differences bring them together.
With Cath, Mira will finally go hang out at a café after school, she’ll share fries with a best friend, talk about boys and even share some secrets. Despite the desperation Mira still feels at home being the only one to deal with her mother’s erratic behavior, Mira finally has something to look forward to in her days. She finally feels like the rest of the girls because she belongs.
But, a misunderstanding between the girls will cause Mira to question everything she’s learned about friendship and trusting another with your feelings. Mira’s heartbreak doesn’t just belong to her but to the reader as well.
Pieces of Me, which won Canada’s prestigious prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, is a sensitive coming of age story that touches on many issues. The wonderful descriptions of art and nature are the backdrop for an honest look at a young woman trying to put herself together to face life.