Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Bibliographic Information
Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin
Publication year: 2013
ISBN: 978-1250064875

Reader’s Annotation
From the first time Park loans Eleanor a comic book, she knows there is something special about him. Falling in love is the last thing the two high schoolers need, but sometimes love is inevitable.

Plot Summary
Eleanor shares her bedroom with her four siblings, all of whom live in fear of their abusive, alcoholic stepfather, Richie. She is bullied at school for the way she dresses in patched, used clothes and her unruly hair that she tries to tame with multicolored ribbons. When she meets Park, she is frustrated that he takes his loving parents and middle-class home for granted. Even with their differences in background, and even knowing high school romances almost never work out, Park and Eleanor give in to first love. When Richie makes the environment in Eleanor’s home too unbearable, she and Park have to figure out if love is enough to fix a seemingly impossible situation.

Critical Evaluation
This novel is identified from the beginning as a “star-crossed lover” teen love story. The powerful choice Rowell makes with her writing is making her characters aware of this. Park and Eleanor have a conversation about one of the most famous star-crossed couples in history, Romeo and Juliet, and recognize them as silly teenagers who didn’t know what they were doing. From Eleanor’s home life being both poor and abusive, to Park not having the resources to help her, the odds are stacked against the teenage couple. Despite this, they enter into a relationship and allow themselves to fall in love. Eleanor’s tragedy and Park’s privilege are both approached from a place of sensitivity, so the reader does not blame Park for being oblivious to his girlfriend’s struggle because he has never truly been exposed to anyone living in poverty or who does not come from a loving home. Instead of blame him, the reader sees that he is a sensitive sixteen-year-old boy in love, doing what he can to help even if it is, at times, not entirely useful. Rowell’s portrayal of two intelligent adolescents who are knowingly doing something that will probably end in disaster is the teenage love story that had not yet been told.

Author Information
Rainbow Rowell is only very good at two things – reading and writing, in that order.

People who are good only at reading and writing, and who also want health insurance, usually study journalism. Rainbow earned a journalism degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1995 and at, 24, became the youngest-ever – and first female – columnist at the Omaha World-Herald. (Which maybe won't sound like such a big deal to you, but she was pretty proud of herself at the time and celebrated with lots of Carlo Rossi Paisano.)

Though her first novel, Attachments, is set in a newsroom, it couldn't be less of a true story. She met her husband in junior high and can hardly get him to read her column, let alone her email.

Her second novel, Eleanor & Park – sort of an East Omaha Romeo & Juliet – came out in March 2013.

Her third book, Fangirl, another love and geek and family story, also comes out next year.

When she's not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing with people about things that don't really matter in the big scheme of things. She has two sons, and if God hears her prayers, they will grow up just as nerdy and true-hearted as the protagonists of her books.

Source: https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/2273/rainbow-rowell

Genre
Fiction

Curriculum Ties
Health (Social and Family Issues)

Booktalking Ideas
Talk about the quintessential “boy meets girl” high school love story, and tell the audience this book is that story, but with a twist: both of the main characters know exactly what they are in for. Read the passage where they discuss Romeo and Juliet and acknowledge their relationship is most likely doomed. This will interest the audience in the characters’ personalities without giving away any spoilers. Then give a rating from 1-5 and tell the audience why this is my rating, and take questions.

Reading Level/Interest Age
Publisher’s Weekly: Age 13 up
School Library Journal: Grade 9 up

Challenging Issues
Bullying
Child Abuse
Depression
Language
Running Away
Sexual Content and/or Nudity

Preparing for Potential Challenges
http://jeselynsminiyacollection.blogspot.com/p/preparing-for-potential-challenges.html

Why the Item Was Chosen
Eleanor and Park makes an adult reader to look back on their first love and examine what, if anything, went wrong and why. For young adult readers, this is even more important because they might be in the middle of their first love at the very moment they pick up the book. Rowell’s portrayal of aware, intelligent star-crossed lovers will cause introspection in teen readers. It will make them more sensitive to their peers whose home lives are less than perfect, and open their minds to ways people live that are different than theirs. I first read Eleanor and Park in my early 20’s, and wish it had come out even five years earlier so I could have experienced it as a teenager. The best I can do is include it in my collection so that any teenagers who come to my library have the option to laugh and cry along with the two incredibly realistic main characters.