Jo Knowles’ beautiful novel, Pearl, reflects the story of a teen girl whose mother admits openly that Pearl, whose grandfather calls her Bean, was nothing more than a rough piece of sand initially. Although her mother assures Bean, “I was her unexpected gem,”Pearl or Bean sees all the ways things don’t fit in her life. Her mother, for starters, may have been able to pursue her own dreams if she hadn’t had a baby to deal with. Then there are the other issues that niggle at her questions about identity: Who is Bean’s father? Why does Bean’s grandfather, who doted upon his own wife, despise Bean’s mother and her mother’s friend Lexie?
Bean’s grandfather grudgingly keeps the family together and acknowledges that he lovesPearlbut he wishes his own life had been so different. When he dies, Bean turns to her best friend Henry, who also wonders who his father is. Life, the two agree, is a lot like the soap operas Henry’s mother watches where no one ever really fits.
Pearl is one marginalized adolescent, aware she was a mistake, believing her presence makes others’ lives so much more difficult. As her story plays out, she’ll slowly discover that there’s much more to making family and community than setting goals and having aspirations. While she wasn’t part of the plan, she’s truly loved, and, while aspirations have changed, there’s nothing wrong with creating new aspirations to fit the circumstances.
This past week I also came across Wisconsinauthor Pat Schmatz’s Blue Fish, a novel of Travis a boy who struggles in school and at home with acceptance, another marginalized adolescent whose best friend finds safety from her own drunken mom by hiding in a dead man’s trailer. Velveeta, with her brilliant scarves and mind, has her own dark secrets. The two adolescents form an alliance that helps them survive and thrive.
These novels both reflect the truth of living on the edge of society. They portray economically and academically disadvantaged characters struggling to survive even as they’re growing into adulthood. The realistic portrayal of living on the margins isn’t actually a new idea. The idea of bringing economic issues into children’s literature certainly came about before Cynthia Voight wrote The Homecoming, a novel about homelessness. But the novels may be needed more now than ever because adolescents need to see the stories of others who struggle and survive in a precarious economy, in families with difficult issues. Too many adolescents are being raised in homes where a parent struggles to make ends meet with a part time job or with a parent trying to string out the last of unemployment. Whether living in suburbia or a rural town, most adolescents know someone who might be hiding the truth of their own impoverishment. Their stories can only serve to help others find the trust and connections that will make all the difference in the world.