A Storm of Strawberries

by Jo Cotterill

Overview

Twelve-year-old Darby loves living on her family's strawberry farm. But a big storm is coming, and it threatens to destroy everything she and her family hold dear.

Darby is twelve years old and has Down syndrome. Her favorite things are music, chocolate, and her big sister Kaydee. It's a big weekend for Darby. It's time for their annual chocolate hunt, and it's all she can think about. Well, that and spending time with her big sister. But this year Kaydee's friend Lissa is staying over for the weekend, and she seems to be stealing all of Kaydee's attention. And to make things worse, the strawberry farm is hit by a tornado. Suddenly, it's as though both the chocolate hunt and her sister are slipping away from her.

Although the family is prepared for the tornado, they aren't prepared for the storm of emotions that surface when a truth is brought to light. With tension rising within the family, can Darby mend what's been broken when it seems like no one is listening to her?

A Storm of Strawberries is a warm, thoughtful, and empathetic novel from acclaimed author Jo Cotterill.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781499808384
Publisher:	little bee books
Publication date:	03/05/2019
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Jo Cotterill has had several careers: actor, musician, teacher, newspaper seller, but is now a full-time writer in Oxfordshire. She loves writing for all ages and has published over twenty books. Jo loves going into schools and talking about books and reading, and can be found making cards and writing music when she's not spending time with her husband and two young daughters.
jocotterill.com / @jocotterillbook

Editorial Reviews

03/01/2019

Gr 4–6—Twelve-year-old Darby, who has Down Syndrome, comes from a blended family whose strawberry farm is at risk because of a coming tornado. To complicate matters, her older sister Kaydee brings home a weekend guest, Lissa, who is not merely a friend, but a romantic partner. As the storm brings chaos outside, so do the mounting jealousies and misunderstandings within the family. When the romantic and sexual nature of the teenage girls' relationship is made plain to Darby's parents, the confrontation that follows gives Darby the opportunity to stand up for her sister and remind her family of the values of inclusivity and respect. Darby is, at times, deeply reflective and knowing. For example, she waxes poetic about her family situation, artfully invoking the metaphor of a kaleidoscope to describe the patterns of conversations around her. At other times, she is more naive or even confused by commonplace objects or concepts. When the stakes are highest—during and after a confrontation when Kaydee and Lissa are accidentally outed to her parents—the narrative gets muddied by inconsistent behavior on the part of the parents. There are other small problems with the narrative, such as the passing mention that their brother Olly is allergic to strawberries, which is never revisited. The strawberry farm workers, many of whom are immigrants, are undeveloped characters. VERDICT It is rare to see a middle grade novel starring a protagonist with Down Syndrome; libraries in need of narratives centering people with disabilities may want to seek this out. The inconsistencies and plot holes, however, make this a secondary purchase for most collections.—Lisa Lehmuller, Paul Cuffee Maritime Charter School, Providence

School Library Journal

2018-12-16

A 12-year-old English girl with Down syndrome copes with drama in her tightknit family over a stormy Easter.

Darby loves her mother and her stepbrother, Olly, and her stepdad. She loves the strawberry farm where she lives. She loves music and paint by numbers. But more than anything else, she adores her 16-year-old sister, Kaydee. Darby's jealous of her sister's attention, so she is anything but pleased when Kaydee's best friend, Lissa, comes for the weekend. At least this weekend will feature one of Darby's favorite events, when she and her family find chocolate eggs in the yard. But with high winds spawning tornadoes and threatening their greenhouses, her parents are distracted and miserable. When Darby sees Kaydee and Lissa kissing and then tells Olly what she's seen, he gets weird. Darby's point of view as a cognitively disabled protagonist is a welcome one, though the execution is flawed; in one scene she describes dialogue she explicitly tells readers she was unable to hear. Moreover, though Darby's a whole and interesting person, by the conclusion she's been diminished to a tired trope of Down syndrome innocence, healing all wounds through pure insights about love. "Oh, Darby.…What would we do without you, eh?" her dad asks whenever the childlike innocence of her Down syndrome causes a shift in his perspective.

Well-meaning, but for a more genuine cognitively disabled protagonist, pair with Sharon Flake's Pinned (2012). (Fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Reviews