Book
Jellicoe Road
Written by Melina Marchetta
Citation
Marchetta, M. (2006). Jellicoe Road. New York: HarperCollins Children's Books.
Summary
Jellicoe Road is a mystery from the start, allowing readers tidbits of information little by little. Its main character, Taylor, knows very little about her parents and her guardian, for that matter. Taking place on the grounds of a private school, Jellicoe Road tells the story of how Taylor finds the missing pieces to the puzzle of who her family is, where her mother is, and what her dreams mean. Intertwined throughout the book are tidbits of Hannah's story - Hannah being Taylor's guardian - that add intrigue and suspicion to an already broken tale. Characters come in and out, never what they seem, helping the reader gather clues and triggering the mind, tricking it into thinking it has the story in the right order, only to find out it isn't at all as it seems.
Reviews
School Library Journal (December 1, 2008): Gr 8 Up-For years, three factions-Townies, Cadets (city kids doing a six-week outdoor education program), and Jellicoe School students-have engaged in teen war games in the Australian countryside, defending territorial borders, negotiating for assets, and even taking hostages. Taylor Markham, a 17-year-old who was abandoned years ago by her mother, takes on leadership of the boarding school's six Houses. Plagued with doubts about being boss, she's not sure she can handle her Cadet counterpart, Jonah Griggs, whom she met several years before while running away to find her mother. When Hannah, a sort of house mother who has taken Taylor under her wing, disappears, Taylor puzzles over the book manuscript the woman left behind. Hannah's tale involves a tragic car accident on the Jellicoe Road more than 20 years earlier. Only three children survived, and Taylor discovers that this trio, plus a Cadet and a Townie, developed an epic friendship that was the foundation of the many mysteries in her life and identity, as well as of the war games. While the novel might put off casual readers, patient, thoughtful teens will remain to extract clues from the interwoven scraps of Hannah's narrative, just as Taylor does, all the while seeing the collapse of the barriers erected among the three groups over the years. Elegiac passages and a complex structure create a somewhat dense, melancholic narrative with elements of romance, mystery, and realistic fiction
Horn Book (November, December 2008): Two tragic stories -- one past, one present -- come together in this carefully constructed novel set in the Australian bush. Seventeen-year-old Taylor Markham has just been made leader of the Jellicoe School's "Underground" during the annual territory wars with the townies and the cadets. Taylor arrived at the school at age eleven when her mother dumped her at the local 7-11 and she was taken in by Hannah, voluntary caretaker of the school's neediest students. Interspersed with war maneuvers, negotiations, and Taylor's hotly charged meetings with cadet leader Jonah Griggs are excerpts from Hannah's unfinished novel about three teenaged survivors of a horrific car wreck on Jellicoe Road years earlier. The three survivors, and the lifelong bonds they formed with the townie who rescued them and the cadet who befriended them, have everything to do with Taylor; together with broken memories of life with her drug-addicted mother and dream visits from a mysterious boy, Hannah's story helps Taylor piece together the truth about her past and determine who she will become. Despite grief piled on grief in the personal histories of the characters, they are all firmly bound by friendship and love. Suspenseful plotting, slowly unraveling mysteries, and generations of romance shape the absorbing novel.
Suggested Use
Because of the interwoven story pieces from Hannah's manuscript, this book would be ideal in teaching high school students the use of multi-story writing. The plot is full of twists and turns making a sequenced story map a positive culminating activity. Discussions involving this book could help students identify that most things in life aren't black and white; exactly as they seem. This book might also be a good resource for a counselor who is facilitating a small group on grief.
Impression
I had to double-dip with this book - I continually had to go back and reread to make sure I understood. The pieces of the puzzle didn't always completely fit, to be honest. The story, itself, was engaging enough to keep me interested, but the details depicted didn't always help bring the story (or newfound information) to life for me. The story was deep and emotion-stirring, and, in the end, I think I liked it. It isn't a book would recommend, however.
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