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CM . . .
. Volume X Number 5 . . . . October 31, 2003
A Hole in the Hedge is veteran journalist Grace Casselman’s first attempt at fiction for young adults. The story begins and ends with a funeral, and Kaitlin Anderson, the novel’s central character, is present at both of them. Considering her preoccupation with her mother’s death and her penchant for hanging out in the local graveyard, this is a fitting place to find the twelve year old protagonist.
Kaitlin and Michael, once the best of friends, are on the outs as a result of Michael’s shunning Kaitlin in front of his friends four years earlier. Michael has apologized many times since then, but Kaitlin has stubbornly sworn to hate him forever, and at one point she even decides to seek revenge, enlisting the aid of all her grade seven chums. In the meantime, she is dealing with a number of other issues concerning her family and friends. Though Kaitlin’s father remarried soon after his first wife died, Kaitlin has never warmed up to her stepmother, Jane, despite all Jane’s efforts. Kaitlin even has issues with her four year-old half sister, Anna. When she’s not fighting with her or Jane, Kaitlin is hanging out with her best friend, Tracy, whose parents have recently split, and that opens up a whole new can of worms. Throw into the mix, Kaitlin’s need to establish her uniqueness with her peer group and cope with new boy girl relationships, and it is plain to see that Kaitlin Anderson has a full plate. Admittedly, adolescents do deal with a plethora of problems simultaneously, but in a novel it is difficult to represent so many concerns in a meaningful way. Certainly several issues can be addressed within a novel, but there should be one outstanding dilemma that determines the movement of the story. In Casselman’s book, that would appear to be the lost friendship between Kaitlin and Michael. Unfortunately, the reader doesn’t really figure this out until halfway through the book. The first ninety pages just seem to meander from one difficulty to another without any driving focus. However, once Kaitlin and her pals start stirring up trouble for Michael and his girlfriend, Shelly, the reader’s interest is finally aroused. From this point on, the story really starts to move. Kaitlin’s plan is almost diabolical. Furthermore, it works. But, as is the case with most acts of revenge, her sense of satisfaction is short lived. Eventually, of course, Michael and Kaitlin sort out their differences and even become romantically interested in each other. Casselman has done a super job of exposing the peripheral emotions and interactions associated with fledgling romance. The uncertainty, excitement, vulnerability, and angst are all there. Unfortunately, the earlier picture she paints of Kaitlin and Tracy - choosing to stand out from their peers by carrying a stuffed toy around at school - intimate the girls, though twelve, are not yet ready for boy girl relationships. In a similar vein, though Kaitlin definitely acts as erratically as any adolescent girl, her unreasonable (given the lengthy period of time she’s had to adjust) hate of Jane and Michael detracts from her likeability, and makes it difficult for the reader to sympathize with her. Kaitlin’s friend, Winter, on the other hand, is a most intriguing character. If Casselman is planning to pen a sequel to this novel, she might want to focus on her. As already noted, the latter half of the novel is very good. The question is - will young readers hang around that long to find out? Recommended with reservations. Kristin Butcher lives in Victoria, BC, and writes for children.
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