Watching Traffic
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A stunning debut novel about that uncertain summer after high-school graduation.
Emily has finally finished high school in the small town where she has lived her whole life. At last, she thinks, her adult life can begin.
But what if you have no idea what you want your new life to look like? What then?
While Lincoln gets ready to go backpacking in Australia, Melissa packs for university on the east coast, and a new guy named Tyler provides welcome distraction, Emily wonders whether she will end up working forever at Pamela’s Country Catering, cutting the crusts off party sandwiches and stuffing mushrooms. Is this her future? Being known forever as the local girl whose mother abandoned her in the worst way possible all those years ago? Visiting her spacey grandmother, watching nature shows on TV with her dad and hanging out with Robert the grocery clerk? Listening to the distant hum of the highway leading out of the town everyone can’t wait to leave?
With poetic prose and a keen eye for the quirks and ironies of small-town life, Jane Ozkowski captures the bittersweet uncertainty of that weird, unreal summer after high school — a time that is full of possibility and completely terrifying at the same time.
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3
Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her first novel, Ozkowski captures the momentousness of the summer after high school. Eighteen-year-old Emily is spending these months in her small Canadian hometown, working for a catering company that mainly serves funerals. Her friends Lincoln and Melissa are heading to Australia and college on scholarship, respectively, but Emily is aimless. Even though it's been 15 years, everyone in town still thinks of Emily as "Suicide Baby," after her mother killed herself in a hotel room with Emily by her side. When she begins dating Tyler, new in town from Toronto, his unawareness of her personal history sets Emily free, allowing her to regain some faith and confidence, and repair her relationships with her friends, especially Melissa, who is trying to accept that she's a lesbian. While the plot slides into melodrama on occasion, Ozkowski's thoughtful novel covers substantial emotional ground with authenticity. The burden of potential and the simultaneous blessing and curse of facing an abundance of possibilities at once are themes that will resonate with readers facing the uncertainty of their own futures. Ages 14 up.
