Lois Metzger

Review can also be found on my blog. :)

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"'A rose by any other name.'

'What? A rose --?'

'It's an expression. It means you can change the name of something but it doesn't change what it is.'"

This book tricked me. I thought it was going to be a mundane, predictable contemporary. The truth is, this book is so much more, but it sneaks up on you. When the message hits, it really hits.

Change Places with Me is divided into three parts. The first part is what really deceived me. The writing is very basic, verging on painfully cheesy and annoying. But I believe a lot of that has to do with the basic emotions and reactions Rose has to the world around her. You see, something happened to Rose. On the surface, everything feels great. She's happy about everything, eager to go out and greet the world. But just beneath the surface... something feels not quite right. This "not quite right" feeling slowly creeps up on you when you're reading. As the gist of the story is revealed, the writing becomes more complex and some really powerful messages emerge.

This book is about grief, weakness, and self-consciousness. As someone who has experienced (and still experiences) grief, I always appreciate a book that deals with it in realistic ways. Change Places with Me nailed what it's like to deal with grief – most importantly, that grief can last years and never really ends, but evolves. It shows the multifaceted ways that grief affects people, and how it's more like a mix of emotions and physical experiences.

Despite appreciated how Rose evolves throughout the story, I unfortunately thought many of the secondary characters remained cookie-cutters. There's a queen bee and her vapid sidekick; cute guy who's actually a jerk; main character's less-attractive BFF. I do think the focus of the book was supposed to be on Rose and her development, but I wish we could have had some more depth in the side characters.

"'...Makeup is all about make up, get it? The outside is supposed to show the inside.'

Kim had it so exactly wrong. The outside was meant to protect and hide and deny the very existence of the inside ..."

In many ways, this book moved me deeply, because as someone who's dealt with grief, I've thought many of these things myself... nearly word-for-word. I remember when I was a teen and I wanted to hide behind various shells: my hair, the clothing I chose, the jokes I made. I remember at times barely wanting to talk to people. There are times when the grief was fresh and the world outside my personal sphere felt like a blur.

Another less important thing that surprised me was the slight touch of science fiction elements in the story. I don't usually gravitate towards contemporary stories, and while it was still majorly a contemporary, the small bit of sci-if definitely made it more intriguing for me.

I didn't expect much from this story because there is a rather low rating on Goodreads. I can see why some people might not find it appealing – the basic writing at the beginning, and Rose's deceptive simplicity. And the fact that this isn't a book about heros or villains. Rose isn't really a character you want to root for, but Rose is a realistic character. Real people remain flawed, and don't always achieve impressive things. Real people's stories don't always end with a bang.

Overall this book really surprised and impressed me. Despite how much I ended up liking it, I have settled with 3.5 stars for this one. It does have a slow start, and while I can understand why, I can see a lot of people DNFing this book because of that. It takes a while for the point of the story to emerge. Additionally, I think the secondary characters could have used more work to make them seem less like tropes. However, I would recommend this book! If you can get past the slow start, it's worth the read.

Final Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½… (meer)

Ellen's euphoric start in seventh grade ends abruptly when she learns that her mother is pregnant—``I think Ellen's got a touch of sibling rivalry fever,'' her father says of her unenthusiastic response to the news. After baby brother Barry is diagnosed as having cerebral palsy, Ellen's burden of anger and guilt culminates in shoplifting and illness. With the help of her mother's new friend Maribeth, mother of a teenager with CP, they learn to cope with Barry's needs and their own feelings. Freedom from guilt opens Ellen's heart; she becomes totally absorbed with Barry, even fighting her father's attempts to care for him. Stressed when he regresses after Dad returns to sea duty, Ellen accidentally overmedicates Barry and her mother severely restricts her involvement in his care, insisting they share activities without him. Gradually, Ellen does develop her own life, complete with best friend, potential boyfriend, and a new closeness to her father, now home for two years. Metzger has a vivid and incisive narrative style, but this ambitious first novel is too long, too full, and not always credible, while overly intent messages distance the reader. Nonetheless, the focus on Ellen and her struggles with the complexities of growing up, sorting out her identity, and establishing her place in a family in crisis does result in a story with appeal for patient readers. (Fiction. 10+)… (meer)

I read The Diary of Anne Frank when I was twelve or thirteen years old. At that time, if there were other memoirs or nonfiction works for children about the Holocaust, I wasn’t aware of them. I knew Anne’s diary was an important historical document and that its author had tragically died from typhus in Bergen-Belsen just weeks before the camp was liberated. I felt genuinely ashamed that I didn’t like the famous work, which seemed overly long and often tedious. Its author was self-absorbed and boy-crazy and reminded me of schoolgirls I preferred to avoid. It seemed that the thoughts of her much-complained-about older sister, Margot, might have actually been more interesting to read. I have never returned to the diary—although hearing the writer Francine Prose being interviewed about its literary merit made me briefly entertain the idea of giving the book another try.

For many young readers, an actual biography of Anne Frank, like this brief one from 2004 by Lois Metzger, might provide a better introduction to the Holocaust than Anne’s famous diary. For one thing, it offers historical, geographical, and political context in accessible language, giving a better overall sense of the times and conditions than a diary can. For another, it spares the reader from “all Anne almost all the time.” The fact is: Anne really could be insufferable — harsh and egocentric. In synthesizing a number of adult works about her (which are listed at the back of the book), Metzger gives young readers a gift. She provides them with the perspectives of others. For example, she paints a sympathetic portrait of Edith Frank, who was breaking under the strain of the dire situation and evidently depressed. Metzger frequently notes the observations of Miep Gies, the devoted employee and friend of the Franks, who was critical in their managing as long as they did in the Secret Annex. Some of Anne’s girlhood friends who survived the war are also quoted. The inclusion of multiple points of view helps to provide a more balanced impression of who Anne was as a person. They work together to make empathetic narrative nonfiction that sometimes reads like a novel.

Metzger also addresses the psychological importance of the diary to Anne. It was an outlet that allowed the young girl a place for making sense of afflictive emotions and extremely stressful circumstances. Metzger selects the more insightful of Anne’s observations and makes the case that these reflect the young diarist’s emotional maturation and growing commitment to writing as a calling. I’d have to go back to the original work to see how well founded that interpretation is.

There are now many alternatives to Anne Frank’s diary. Metzger’s is a worthy one.… (meer)