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THE TRUTH OR SOMETHING by Jeanne Willis

THE TRUTH OR SOMETHING

by Jeanne Willis

Pub Date: May 1st, 2001
ISBN: 0-8050-7079-6
Publisher: Henry Holt

“I don’t know me either. Not any more.” Nothing is the way Mick Spicer thought it was. His father Harry Spicer is really his stepfather. His sister Eileen, whom he believed had been sold to the rag-and-bone man, is really buried in the nearby cemetery, having died of pneumonia when six months old. His mother is not in the hospital having a baby; she’s in prison for theft. And his name’s not Mick Spicer; it’s Mick Stokes. Having been shifted from place to place, left alone or left with friends and relatives, Mick Stokes has been desperately poor and lonely, an invisible child whose whole short life has been one of mistaken identity. He says early in the story, “I was trying to make a world. I don’t know what out of, but whatever it was, I was making it wrong.” It’s as if Mick had some of the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but not all of the pieces or not the right pieces, or perhaps the wrong puzzle. Mick’s first-person narrative is nicely drawn, from the confused, disjointed narrative of a lonely little boy to mid-story, when Mick is surprised to find out who he is—and isn’t. By the end, having come full-circle, Mick’s voice gets stronger as he gets older and more capable of making his world. If he doesn’t quite find himself, he does find his voice, and his resolve to not be beaten in life. The narrative voice is a challenge and the subject matter is grim, but patient, older readers will find a good story and some measure of truth. (Fiction. YA)