Harley, Like a Person

by Cat Bauer Narrated by Carine Montbertrand

Overview

Harley Columba may still be in high school, but she's growing up fast. With trouble at home and a stunted social life, she feels more like a survivor than a student. The only thing that keeps her sane is drawing and painting. The man who calls himself her father is a drunken jerk. He and Harley don't look alike, and her mother refuses to talk about the past. To make sense of her life, Harley decides she must find out the truth about her father: his identity and his connection to her artistic talent. It is a search that will take her from her tiny home town to the streets of New York City. Harley, Like a Person is a brutally honest portrait of a troubled teenage girl. As Harley grows more rebellious, her story is not sweetened with artificial hope. Discover more about Harley, Like a Person at winslowpress.com.

Editorial Reviews

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-At 14, Harley is possessed by the idea that her verbally abusive father can't possibly be her natural parent. Growing up in a working-class New Jersey neighborhood, she has known the same people all her life, but only recently has she discovered a harlequin doll, addressed to her on her second birthday, with a note from "Papa." The handwriting isn't her dad's and that gives Harley enough reason to look for factual evidence to support her feeling of having been adopted. Told in Harley's voice, the story veers between self-centered capriciousness and bravery. The details are realistic, and Harley's search for her birth father is flawed but credible in method. Minor characters have disappointingly flat walk-on roles. Harley's siblings are barely more than names; the grandmother on whom she dotes dies offstage within pages of being introduced; the disciplinarian at Harley's school does a mean Jekyll-and-Hyde imitation without explanation; even Harley's birth father is dismissed almost as soon as she discovers his identity. This isn't a novel with literary flair but it is a well-felt story with real appeal to Harley's peers. The facts of her life, and her emotional health, are complex. Young teens seeking stories about troubled homes and strong girls who persevere in the face of unimpressive adults will not be disappointed.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Kirkus Reviews

paper: 1-890817-49-X Living in a thoroughly dysfunctional family, with an alcoholic father and an enabling mother, Harley Columba feels and hopes that she is adopted. Researching her birth certificate, she finds discrepancies that start her on a path to finding her birth father. An old yearbook, a toy clown, and a handwritten note in the attic point to a high school beau of her mother's, Sean Shanahan. Harley's search for some sort of relief from her abusive father and her helpless mother lead her through some experimenting with the wild kids in school, getting her deeper in trouble at home. Finally, she lights out for New York City, confronts Sean, and hears the unvarnished truth. Still as irresponsible as ever, Sean admits that he has sired two children out of wedlock: Harley and her best friend, Carla. The sub-plot, which hints at Harley's artistic abilities, is nearly drowned out by the senseless comments and violence of her abusive stepfather, which caused her to seek refuge, starting from the first page. But it is clear that her art comes from the father who left her behind. Returning home, Harley and her parents make a small step toward peace. But this ending seems tacked on and the stepfather's shift in attitude hard to believe. It is only the author's facility with words that saves this from becoming soap opera of the first order and it might have succeeded better had the narration not been in the first person. An okay first novel, with a promise of better to come. (Fiction. YA)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170787753
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	02/15/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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