Jinx

by Margaret Wild, Jason Gould (Photographer)

Overview

Do not get to know me. Do not ask me out. Do not love me. Be warned!
I am Jinx.
Jinx doesn't start out as Jinx — at first she's dull, safe, boring Jen. Jen who always hands her homework in on time, Jen who never stays out late, Jen who can always be counted on.
When Jen's first boyfriend dies, she thinks she's unlucky...until her second boyfriend dies too. Jen is Jinx now — a curse, a promise of bad luck, a girl who's angry and alone, who can't get close to people anymore.
Can Jinx find her way back to being Jen again?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689865411
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	03/01/2004
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	790L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Margaret Wild has published over thirty books, including The Very Best of Friends, Fox, and Our Granny. This is her first novel for teens. Margaret lives in Sydney, Australia.

Read an Excerpt

JINX

Chapter One

JINX Do not get to know me. Do not ask me out. Do not love me. Be warned! I am Jinx. she is jen She is Jen. Not yet Jinx. She lives with her mother and sister Grace, in a shabby row house in the inner west, where babies' first words are "car" and "plane." She loves it here, she wouldn't live anywhere else. But week after week, month after month, each day, each night, is relentlessly the same: school homework dinner TV more homework bed. She screeches at her mother and sister, she screeches to feel alive. She wishes for something to happen. Anything. Everything! JEN good girl I don't- skip school shoplift smoke or drink. I do my homework study hand in assignments on time. I look after my sister iron my school clothes help Mom with the dishes. I am sensible reliable responsible (that's what my school reports say). I am too quiet dull safe boring! (that's what I say). By my eighteenth birthday I want to have smoked (cigarettes and joints) got drunk had sex!!! jen's mom will write Jen's mom writes advertising copy. She specializes in white goods: washing machines, dryers, fridges, freezers, dishwashers. She hates these appliances hulking in corners, power-hungry and fractious. One day, she will have a wood stove, and she'll write about things that matter- she will write about birth anddeath, about love and the absence of love, about fathers and children, about mothers and daughters, about lovers and friends. She'll write about the whole goddamn wonderful, awful business of loving and being loved.

---

Excerpted from JINX by margaret wild Copyright © 2002 by Margaret Wild
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

---

Editorial Reviews

Booklist (starred review) Intricate, vivid language.

Publishers Weekly The brief narratives precisely capture the spirit of a character, feeling, or moment. Together, the poems create something larger: a portrait of a young woman pulling herself out of despair.

Kirkus Reviews A subtly wrought, deeply affecting story.

SLJ The voices are distinct, and all ring true.

From the Publisher

"Connected poems compellingly tell the story of a self-proclaimed jinx as she weathers the tragic, unrelated deaths of two consecutive boyfriends," said PW. Ages 14-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

(starred review)Intricate, vivid language.

Booklist

A subtly wrought, deeply affecting story.

Kirkus Reviews

The voices are distinct, and all ring true.

SLJ

Gr 9 Up-When Jen's boyfriend commits suicide, she is lonely, sad, bewildered, and rebellious. During this bleak period, she starts drinking and having casual sex, but then meets Ben and begins the long journey back to normalcy. After he dies, a classmate calls her "Jinx," and Jen decides the name fits her. Seeking to strike out at Hal, the person responsible for Ben's accident, and not realizing or caring where her angry words fall, Jinx conducts a secret, malicious assault. It is not until she actually meets and becomes friends with Hal that she is able to begin putting aside the hurt and anger that have plagued her since childhood. In confronting and dealing with the family issues that have been a lingering shadow all her life, the teen learns that love and forgiveness are a first step to maturity. This newfound acceptance and understanding of herself, her family, and her friends enables Jinx to want to be Jen again. In a style reminiscent of Mel Glenn's Who Killed Mr. Chippendale? (Dutton, 1996), the story is told in verse form. This technique allows the author to acquaint readers with each character and to weave a powerful story of teen angst. The voices are distinct, and all ring true, giving insight into the parents' lives and concerns as well as those of the teens. While the setting is in Australia, the central theme of family dynamics is so universal that it could be anywhere.-Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal