Encore Edie. Annabel Lyon. Toronto, ON: Puffin Canada, 2012. 196 pp., trade pbk., $14.00. ISBN 978-0-14-317741-8. Grades 6-9 / Ages 11-14. Review by Tanya Boudreau. **½ /4

excerpt:

It takes a minute for my brain to catch up to my ears. “That’s Cordelia,” I say to Aunt Ellie. “That’s Cordelia’s first song in our King Lear.”

“She knows all the songs,” Aunt Ellie says, ruffling Merry’s hair. “The words, too. She’s been to every rehearsal, after all.”

“Yeah, but that’s- that’s amazing. Half the cast don’t know their own lines yet.”

“It’s okay, Edie,” Merry says

We sleep in her room, Merry in her bed and me on the futon. She falls asleep fast. After a while I get up and find Aunt Ellie in the kitchen, back on her computer. “Can’t sleep?” she says.

I shake my head. “What are you doing?

“Just email, Daniel says hi.”

“To me?”

“I emailed him earlier that you were here, while I was making supper. He says to call you String Bean and tell you you’re amazing.” I make a face. Aunt Ellie laughs. “He’s just pushing your buttons, Edie. He messes with you because he likes you.

Thirteen-year-old Edie is having a miserable time in high school. Friends, boyfriends and kindness don’t come as easy to her as they do to her older sister, Dexter. After her classmates ridicule her about the clothes she wears and the company she keeps, Edie tries to disappear by immersing herself in the school’s musical production of King Lear. She keeps herself busy re-writing the script, but when her emotions flare up, she finds herself alone. Although it’s not much of a surprise to the reader, Edie receives help from the one person she least expects; her cousin Merry, who has Down’s syndrome. Fourteen-year-old Merry has her limitations, which Edie learns to accept, but when Edie discovers Merry’s talents, she finds a way to showcase them on the stage. This sequel to All-Season Edie is set in British Columbia (Vancouver and Coquitlam). There are some memorable characters at Edie’s school that add drama and interest to the storyline, but Edie’s family seems a little too sweet to be believable. Lyon does capture the heartbreaking reality of a teenager’s life in this story though, and she shows how tolerance and acceptance can bring about happiness and peace within a family, a school and oneself.

Recommended.

Tanya Boudreau is a librarian at the Cold Lake Public Library in Cold Lake, AB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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