Reviewed by Rebecca Wells for TeensReadToo.comWhen JP O'Brien's Grandma Mary dies, his orderly world quickly begins to unravel - his mentally challenged father becomes completely lost, and his mother, Mam, starts acting quite unlike her usual sheltered self. JP tries to make do in this new world, but when Mam wins a farmhouse in an essay contest and the family moves, things really come apart. Mam insists on opening the farmhouse to just about every neighborhood outcast who comes by, and suddenly the house is filled with strangers who borrow his things without asking, and seem to be creating a world in the farmhouse that doesn't include JP or his father. All JP wants is for the world to reorder itself, and his family to be restored to what it used to be. But what if the world is meant to stay the way it is? As the people in his life begin to make space for this sudden chaos, JP finds himself realizing that maybe family is more than just the people you're born with, and maybe chaos isn't the worst thing that has happened to him. In this novel, Han Nolan presents a boy struggling to maintain control of his world even as it slips between his fingers. JP O'Brien is a sympathetic protagonist whose worries draw the reader into his world, and we find ourselves hoping that he gets what he wants. Not everything that is broken gets fixed in A FACE IN EVERY WINDOW, but this novel is a heartwarming tale of family and friendship nonetheless.
A Face in Every Window is the type of Young Adult book that contains universal themes applicable to any reader, regardless of age or life experience. Each character, from the protagonist to each and every odd hipster that bursts through his front door, is, on the outside, a crude stereotype of what society would label them as. JP is an introvert and a loner, his mother is a homewrecking, care-free, spoiled woman, and her various friends are all hipsters drinking wine and reading poetry. But Han Nolan brilliantly dispells, over the course of the novel, those illusions. Each character, it turns out, has been shaped by life circumstances and is truly a three-dimensional, deep character. It is satisfying novel that pulls at the strings of your heart from all angles.
What do You think about A Face In Every Window (2001)?
I've had this book sitting on my class bookshelf for a long time. I originally bought it because a 7th grade student I tutored in Trophy Club had it on his summer reading list and he said it was a good book. I trusted Max's opinion, a non-reader wanted me to read it because he liked it.It's a good book, a very good book, but I don't think I'll be able to recommend it to any of my students. It's too real and many of my students are being protected from reality by their parents.But if I had a student dealing with abuse, neglect, the nature of love, or homosexuality, I might push this book his or her way....
—Laura
