Weeds and Other Stories. Jacqueline Pearce. Saskatoon, SK: Thistledown, 2003. 208 pp., pbk., $14.95. ISBN 1-894345-64-9. Subject Heading: Adolescence-Juvenile fiction. Grades 8-11 / Ages 13-16. Review by Joan Marshall. ** /4

excerpt:

"Why don't you give us your jacket?"

At first Josh thought maybe they were joking. He laughed. Or tried. The sound was more like a croak.

"You laughing at us?" All four pressed in on him. They seemed tight or coiled up, as if looking for an excuse to let go. Josh glanced around. He was alone.

The guy with the hat shoved him. He fell against a big guy who felt kind of soft. Like the Pilsbury (sic) Dough Boy, Josh thought, stupidly. Dough Boy grabbed Josh by the collar.

"You looking for a fight?"

"Just a minute." Josh took off his leather jacket - not to give it to them, just to free up his arms. He dropped the coat to the ground and sprung into Kung Fu readiness.

The replay deviated from what actually happened that night.

In actual fact, he'd dropped the jacket and ran.

Ah, the high school years when you realize that you are building a reputation, building a life. Remember how nerve-wracking that was? If your high school days have disappeared long ago in a haze of relief, or if you now view them with rosy-coloured glasses, perhaps it is time to turn to a book of short stories in which the teenagers make decisions that pull them closer to the people they want to be.

     Weeds and Other Stories by Jacqueline Pearce brings together twelve short stories centered around the relationships teenagers suffer through while they're busy creating the images they think will attract others. In many of the stories, there is a connection with the environment - racoons in the city, working at an animal rescue shelter, planting trees and caring for wild birds. Often the natural world crystallizes for the protagonist how to take the right path. Sometimes the animal symbolizes the character's dilemma. In “The Trickster,” a coyote skin and skull become Nanabosh, the trickster, whose goofy eeriness scares away bullies. In “Dreams of Flight,” the death of a hawk pushes a girl to realize that she can't share her life with superficial friends. In “We're In,” Brianna is haunted by how her new boyfriend kills a neighbourhood dog while showing off with his car. In “Down,” a flock of crows calls Matt back from suicide in the voice of his dead friend, Kevin.

     Some of these stories seem aimed at younger readers. In “The Challenge,” for example, Derek and Scott begin to move beyond video games and into connecting with real girls in a very awkward, beginning adolescent way. In “Weeds,” Karen struggles with attracting the in-crowd and is taken advantage of as she lends her homework. Other stories are obviously intended for older students. In “Down,” Matt is addicted to drugs, and there is an explicit description of how he takes the drugs, unable to stop even though drugs have killed his best friend. In “A Shift of Seasons,” Kat finds herself pregnant, wondering what to do and unable to talk to her father. In “Girls Night Out,” the boys are drunk and obnoxious.

     All of the stories have a vaguely old-fashioned feel to them. The characters are good people who are struggling to make the right choices as teenagers still do today. However, no one has a cell phone, no one chats on the internet, no one is taking ESL classes, and no one has sex except by accident. All of these themes dominate the lives of Canadian teens today. So, the stories will be read by younger students, perhaps, and older students will have an uneasy feeling - as if the stories don't quite resonate with them.

     The final six stories end more subtly, leaving the reader to create the endings rather than tidying up the loose ends and clarifying the obvious direction and theme as the fist six stories do. “A Shift of Seasons,” after a very prosaic look at an unwanted pregnancy, ends in a stunning way: "For that moment, I have a sense of things deep under the snow. Seeds. Bulbs. Small animals sleeping under the earth, safe and waiting."

     Several of these stories could easily be built into novels. They cry out for more detail, a more in-depth look at both the characters and the themes. In “The Door,” for example, what has so scarred Ria's life that she wets the bed at fifteen and deliberately presents a cold, indifferent face to the world? Do her foster parents manage to support her? In “Weeds,” can Karen continue to cope with her impoverished background? There is a frustrating feeling for the readers that we don't quite know enough about the characters' situations and we have to leave their lives before we have any satisfying sense that they have moved on.

     This is a small book - the perfect size to hide when you don't want to be seen as a reader. The cover features a flame swallower breathing out fire, in front of a circus tent. It's a visually arresting cover, but unrelated to any of the stories in the book.

     These are clearly Canadian stories, and teachers and younger (or weaker) students will find them useful for assignments requiring a short story that reflects the Canadian experience. For more complex, longer short stories, turn to the work of R. P. McIntyre, Richard Scarsbrook, Linda Holeman, Martha Brooks, Rick Book, Peter Carver or Budge Wilson.

Recommended.

Joan Marshall is a teacher librarian at Fort Richmond Collegiate in Winnipeg, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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