After the death of her beloved Gramps, Delores Colchester, better known as “Itch,” moves with her grandmother from Florida to Ohio. Starting over is hard, and Itch feels like an outsider in her new school, until she becomes friends with popular baton-twirling Gwendolyn. On the outside, Gwendolyn seems perfect: talented, smart, and beautiful. But she has a dark secret, which Itch begins to suspect and soon discovers is true. “Speaking up takes courage,” Gramps had always told Itch, and she’s about to discover just how much. Michelle D. Kwasney weaves a compelling story about child abuse, family, and friendship against the backdrop of the late 1960s.
Children's Literature Delores adores her grandpa, and even accepts his pet name for her. Itch was appropriate after she got into poison ivy. But his heart attack changed her and Gram's life. Selling the house and his 1957 Chevy Bel Air convertible, leaving her best friend, Bailey, and starting a new school in 6th grade is terrible. Moving from Florida to Ohio means she and Gram will live in Lazy Acres Mobile Home Park. After Delores meets Wendy, the winner of the 1968 Lakeville Talent Show, and Billy, the paper boy, life improves some. Both Billy and Delores become suspicious when they see welts on Wendy. Delores remembers Gramps telling her, Speaking up takes courage. Is Wendy being abused? By whom? What can they do? Life isn't fair, Delores tells Billy. It ain't life's fault, Billy said. It's people who mess things up. Michelle Kwasney writes the sadness of moving, the mystery of mamas, and how hard it is to grow up. The story is so well written that 12-year-old girls won't be able to stop turning the pages. Included is a list of dictionary words that Itch has collected, a perfect list to tell her story. Reviewer: JoAn Watson Martin

Michelle D. Kwasney

Twenty-First Century Books, Incorporated

St. Martin's Press

United States, United States of America

First edition, New York, 2008

April 29, 2008

1, PS, 2008

After the death of her beloved Gramps, Delores Colchester, better known as Itch, moves with her grandmother from Florida to Ohio. Starting over is hard, and Itch feels like an outsider in her new school, until she becomes friends with popular baton-twirling Gwendolyn. On the outside, Gwendolyn seems talented, smart, and beautiful. But she has a dark secret, which Itch begins to suspect and soon discovers is true. Speaking up takes courage, Gramps had always told Itch, and shes about to discover just how much. Michelle D. Kwasney weaves a compelling story about child abuse, family, and friendship against the backdrop of the late 1960s. Itch is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

In 1968, after the death of her beloved Gramps, Delores "Itch" Colchester and her grandmother move from Florida to an Ohio trailer park, where she meets new people and, when she learns that a friend is being abused by her mother, tries her best to emulate her plain-spoken grandfather.

2023-06-28