Little Red Lies

by Julie Johnston

Overview

The war is over, but for thirteen-year-old Rachel, the battle has just begun. Putting childhood behind her, she knows what she wants - to prove she has acting talent worthy of the school drama club, and what she doesn't want - to romantically fall for someone completely inappropriate. Worries about her veteran brother's failing health and repugnance at her mother's unexpected and unwanted pregnancy drive her to seek solace from a seemingly sympathetic, but self-serving teacher. The lies she tells herself hoping to reach solutions to the problems complicating her life merely function to make matters worse. Ultimately, she finds a way to come to terms with life as it reaches an end and life as it begins.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770498075
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	03/10/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Julie Johnston's subtle and beautifully polished work has received numerous awards and honors throughout her career. Her first two novels, Hero of Lesser Causes and Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me, received the Governor General's Literary Award, and her subsequent two novels, The Only Outcast and In Spite of Killer Bees, were Governor General's Literary Award finalists. In 2003, Julie Johnston was presented with the Vicky Metcalf Award for her body of work and its contribution to literature for young people. Her most recent young adult books, Susanna's Quill and A Very Fine Line, were also critically acclaimed. Julie Johnston lives in Peterborough, Ontario.

Editorial Reviews

Selected, Kirkus Reviews's list of Best Books, 2013


“Filled with bumbling characters who achingly love each other, this coming-of-age tale rises above a crowded field to take readers on a moving journey of discovery.” - Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews


“.... Johnston gives equal weight to struggles major and trivial as she sensitively examines the painful process of rebuilding one’s life under the most difficult of circumstances.” - Publishers Weekly


“Johnston has crafted a beautifully written, low-key, yet emotional story of a family dealing with the return of a son at the close of war. Jamie is wracked with survivor’s guilt .... His letters to Rachel .... are painfully realistic, the antithesis of the glamour that teens too often assign to war ....” - Starred Review, Booklist


“Rachel’s down-to-earth, dry humour and ironic perspective on herself make this story sparkle with adolescent verve; at the same time, Johnston writes with emotional depth, compassion and poignancy of the very real losses that threaten Rachel and her family. Once again Johnston proves herself one of Canada’s outstanding writers for young adults—funny and serious, irreverent and moving.” - The Toronto Star 

From the Publisher

Rachel, after donning an inappropriately bright lipstick called "Little Red Lies," welcomes her beloved elder brother, James, back from World War II. Unfortunately, lies aren't confined to the lipstick. James, deeply altered by the war, glosses over his disturbing experiences to his family, although letters he continues to write to Rachel--but has never sent--contain the truth of the brutality. Tragically, once safely home, he develops leukemia, a lethal illness in 1947. Rachel lies to him to convince him to visit a faith healer, whom she then recognizes as a fraud. Then she lies to her parents (and herself) about the intentions of a handsome but predatory teacher who's playing up to her as well as other girls. After her mom conceives an unplanned baby, it's concealed from both Rachel and James. When they discover, embarrassingly late, the cause of her weight gain, James feels convinced the baby is intended as a replacement for him. The seeming surfeit of subplots is believably explained and sensitively written, succeeding largely due to Rachel's spunky though almost pathetically naïve first-person voice, which rings fully true. At one point, the whole town believes James has the clap, largely because Rachel overheard then repeated a conversation she didn't understand. Filled with bumbling characters who achingly love each other, this coming-of-age tale rises above a crowded field to take readers on a moving journey of discovery. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews