Raspberry House Blues

This was such a great book! I finished it in 3 days, and I'm usually a pretty slow reader. I couldn't put it down! It is about a sixteen year-old girl named Poppy who lives with her adoptive mother in Winnipeg. When her mother takes off to Greece with her boyfriend, Poppy has to stay with her mother's friend for the summer. Poppy doesn't think much of that idea, so she gets on a plane to Winnipeg where her father lives. There she stays with her father, stepmother and their son while she searches for her birth mother. I don't want to give away any more of this story, you'll have to read it for yourself! I strongly recommend this book, especially to girls aged 12-16.

When I bought this book I had my doubts. I thought it would be just a cliche "girl finds love unexpected places while trying to find someone." I also was not very excited to find that Winnipeg is the setting of this novel. Instead, it was a funny and extremely realistic book. As I was reading, I could easily see myself as Poppy, the main character. Everything was so real I could not believe it. Also, the author writes with great descriptions and uses Winnipeg to her advantage. This is a book that every teenaged girl should read. You will fall in love with almost all the characters, including Poppy's loving, but clued-out dad, her hippie step mom, and the eccentric Becca. Go read this book now!

The search for home is the subject of this tenderly written novel about a young girl's journey to locate her birth mother. Poppy is seventeen, tall, red-haired and adopted. Since the age of five, she has lived with her adoptive mother Denise in Winnipeg. Recently Denise has take up with Marcus, a poet from Greece. Her father Eric has started a new family in Vancouver. Poppy decides that the only person who can really care about her must be her birth mother. As the beginning of a summer holiday, she travels to Vancouver to undertake a journey that will introduce her to many new people and situations. By the end of summer, Poppy discovers that she has learned much on this spiritual odyssey, mostly about herself and the value of a family bonds.Linda Holeman writes in a style that is easy to read and contemporary in setting. In this book, she has created a cast of characters that are so real, they could be personal family members. Poppy is a whole person, capable of being sweet and sensitive, but acting at times in ways that are also selfish and stubbornly single minded. A good read!