Snowsisters

by Tom Wilinsky

Overview

High school students—Soph, who attends private school in Manhattan, and Tess, a public school student who lives on a dairy farm in New Hampshire—are thrown together as roommates at a week-long writing conference. As they get to know each other and the other young women, both Soph and Tess discover unexpected truths about friendship, their craft, and how to hold fast to their convictions while opening their hearts to love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945053528
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/01/2018
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

Editorial Reviews

“SNOWSISTERS offers a delightful and much-needed opportunity for LGBTQIA readers to find themselves starring within the pages of a novel, but the message is a universal one: We are the architects of our own stories, and we are the ones who decide when and where those stories are told. A wonderful, important debut.” —Jodi Picoult, NYT bestselling author of SMALL GREAT THINGS

“A compelling portrayal of two young girls from different worlds headed after what they want but slowing down enough to connect and remind us that strength and doing the right thing can be all kinds of messy and complicated—I’m all over that!” —M-E Girard, author of GIRL MANS UP

“At the heart of this timely, well-crafted novel is a beautifully rendered relationship. Soph and Tess, different as night and day meet at a women’s writing retreat in the middle of winter in the middle of nowhere. What happens between them will touch your heart, as all good stories do. A shining and promising debut.” —Sarah Weeks, author of SO B. IT

“In a narrative where learning a writer’s craft fuels each coming-of-age, the clear literary metaphors for diversity, tradition, and modernity are both thematic and thoroughly satisfying.” —Kirkus Reviews (12/21/17)

From the Publisher

02/01/2018
Gr 9 Up—A week at camp provides time for some serious self reflection for two very different girls. Farm girl Tess and Manhattanite Soph meet as roommates in rural New Hampshire at a young women's writing conference. Soph, a lesbian who rarely hesitates to speak her mind, writes poetry while Tess, who is in a complicated relationship with a boy, writes fan fiction. Tess plans to join the military after high school and hopes this retreat will show her a bit about what life is like beyond her tiny town. What she finds are experiences that challenge her as a writer and as a person, pushing her to find her voice in more ways than one. Narrated by the protagonists in alternating chapters, the plot has potential, with an atmospheric setting filled with a diverse group of girls, but the execution is lacking. The large cast of characters is unmemorable, save trans-exclusionary feminist Chris who spends the entire novel spewing hate at Orly, who is transgender. Chris is constantly misgendering Orly, attempting to "investigate" her, and repeating how unsafe she feels. Tess and Soph do call her out and try to broker peace. Readers may be inclined to skip Tess's lackluster fan fiction and Soph's rather abysmal poetry. While the eventual ways Tess and Soph grow from their time together is meaningful (Tess finds her role as a leader and Soph begins to understand that not everyone can be loudly and openly out), getting there is a journey filled with largely forgettable and repetitive moments. VERDICT An additional purchase.—Amanda MacGregor, Parkview Elementary School, Rosemount, MN

School Library Journal

2017-12-21
Two lesbian teens with very different backgrounds meet at a writers' retreat.Tess is a poor, white Franco-American farm girl from a New Hampshire military family, an author of fan fiction who hopes to gain confidence before her West Point interview. Soph is an extremely rich, white, unwilling debutante from Manhattan, a poet aiming to impress the program director for her own college applications. Soph is out and proud, loudly political about feminism and the political imperative for everyone to claim their sexuality; Tess is closeted, unable to risk coming out before she's safely in the military. At the weeklong Young Women's Writing Conference, they grapple with social justice, writing, their own maturity, and first love. A transphobic attendee threatens a friend's safety, and though both protagonists learn to act as allies, the trans character looks out for herself, showing the cis girls the limits of their good intentions. Analogies between language and human interaction abound; one lovely vignette shows several girls offering different names for bread rolls from their own cultural backgrounds. Nuance is at the core of their journeys: context matters, and real leadership is harder than simply condemning those who make harmful choices. Unrealistically crafted dialogue is a distraction. An opening note directs interested readers to an online list of trigger warnings.In a narrative where learning a writer's craft fuels each coming-of-age, the clear literary metaphors for diversity, tradition, and modernity are both thematic and thoroughly satisfying. (Fiction. 13-17)

Kirkus Review