The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Jenna Fox Chronicles #1)

by Mary E. Pearson Narrated by Jenna Lamia

Overview

Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers?

Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Outstanding examination of identity, science and ethics. "I used to be someone. / Someone named Jenna Fox. / That's what they tell me," begins the hypnotic first-person narration. She woke from an 18-month coma two weeks ago, but she doesn't know how to smile or who her parents are. She watches recordings of each childhood year but they ring no bells. Why has her family brought her to a hidden cottage in California, distant from home and doctors? Mental flashes reveal a void of paralysis where "darkness and silence go on forever." Was that her coma? Voices call Jenna, hurry! into her ears-are those from the night of the accident, which she can't remember? Jenna recognizes that her gait is awkward and her memory peculiar (spotty about childhood while disturbingly perfect about academics), but asking questions provokes only furtive glances between her parents. Pearson reveals the truth layer by layer, maintaining taut suspense and psychological realism as she probes philosophical notions of personhood. A deeply humane and gripping descendent of Peter Dickinson's classic Eva. (Science fiction. YA)

From the Publisher

* ...raises the ante in unexpected ways until the very last page.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“* This is a beautiful blend of science fiction, medical thriller, and teen-relationship novel that melds into a seamless whole that will please fans of all three genres.” —School Library Journal, starred review

“* Outstanding examination of identity, science and ethics.” —Kirkus, starred review

“Readers will respond eagerly to this provocative novel.” —Kirkus Reviews, Sci-Fi/Fantasy Special

“…what will hold readers most are the moral issues of betrayal, loyalty, sacrifice, and survival.” —Booklist

“Fascinating and thought provoking.” —Kliatt

“This novel is truly unlike any other I have ever read and is a breath of fresh air in the often predictable world of teen literature.” —ELLEgirl

“This is an amazingly powerful, thought-provoking, just brilliant novel.” —Teen Book Review

“An extraordinarily fine novel.” —Voya

“Gut-punch plot twists.” —The Seattle Times

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169456660
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	04/29/2008
Series:	Jenna Fox Chronicles , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

Read an Excerpt

I look at my fingers again, the ones that trembled and shook just a few days ago at Mr. Bender’s kitchen table. I bring them together, fingertip to fingertip, like a steeple. Each one perfect by appearance. But something is not . . . right. Something that I still have no word for. It is a dull twisting that snakes through me. Is this a tangled feeling that everyone my age feels? Or is it different? Am I different? I slide my steepled fingers, slowly, watching them interlace. Trying to interlace, like a clutched desperate prayer, but again, I feel like the hands I am lacing are not my own, like I have borrowed them from a twelve-fingered monster. And yet, when I count them, yes, there are ten. Ten exquisitely perfect, beautiful fingers.

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