GIRLS' READ OF THE MONTH

ROSIE and SKATE
By Beth Ann Bauman

Rosie and Skate are sisters trying to simply make it through with bad cards that life has dealt them. Their father is an apathetic alcoholic in jail, and their mother died before they ever had a chance to remember her. With the backdrop of the off season of the Jersey Shore as the setting, we are thrown into the stark world of what it is like to live fulltime in a vacation haven after the world has gone home.

Told from the point of view of the sisters in alternating chapters, Rosie and Skate each have distinctively realistic voices with their own unique styles of poetic rawness. Skate, sixteen, can't deal with the embarrassment that is her dad and pines for her first love, Perry, who has left the Shore for his freshman year of college a couple of hours away. Her name comes from having taken up skateboarding at an early age. She carries her board around with her almost everywhere she goes, like a fierce security blanket. Rosie,  the younger of the two, is fifteen and her mind is filled with almost constant worry about keeping her messed up family together--not to mention the normal stress of boys.  The characters that surround the sisters, like their cousin Angie who comes to stay or Perry's mom Julia, are woven into the story in a way way that makes you root for them too.

To sum it up, Rosie thinks to herself in the first chapter, "If you do nothing, then nothing will change."  We were with Rosie and Skate through every awkward stumble and each brave move, as they try to learn what their version of change will be. A powerhouse of a book, this quick read will make you think about the story and these sisters long after you have turned the final page.

Click here to buy ROSIE and SKATE on Amazon.com

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