The Way the Light Bends

by Cordelia Jensen

Overview

A powerful novel in verse about fitting in, standing out, defining your own self-worth, and what it takes to keep a fracturing family whole.

Virtual twins Linc and Holly were once extremely close. But while artistic, creative Linc is her parents' daughter biologically, it's smart, popular Holly, adopted from Ghana as a baby, who exemplifies the family's high-achieving model of academic success.

Linc is desperate to pursue photography, to find a place of belonging, and for her family to accept her for who she is, despite her surgeon mother's constant disapproval and her growing distance from Holly. So when she comes up with a plan to use her photography interests and skills to do better in school--via a project based on Seneca Village, a long-gone village in the space that now holds Central Park, where all inhabitants, regardless of race, lived together harmoniously--Linc is excited and determined to prove that her differences are assets, that she has what it takes to make her mother proud. But when a long-buried family secret comes to light, Linc must decide whether her mother's love is worth obtaining.

A novel in verse that challenges the way we think about family and belonging.

Praise for The Way the Light Bends

"I fell into Linc's world and found myself changed by her journey. Readers will fall in love with her and her struggles." -Dhonielle Clayton, author of the Tiny Pretty Things series and The Belles

"Achingly beautiful, honest and visceral. This is a must read for anyone who has questioned whether they belong." -Meg Wiviott, author of Paper Hearts

"Linc's struggle to chart her own future, unfolding in graceful verse, makes a compelling read." --Kirkus Reviews

"Give this book to any students who have ever felt invisible or who have ever struggled to feel at home in a traditional academic setting." --School Library Journal

"The meshing of word choice and space integrates the protagonist's inner struggles with her undeniable talent as a budding photographer." --Voice of Youth Advocates

"Rich with imagery that embodies longing and heart, a girl's desire to recapture what was, and her joy over discovering her own kind of success." --Booklist

"The book tugs at the heartstrings by focusing on family dynamics and expectations that are universal experiences." --School Library Connection

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399547447
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	03/27/2018
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	644,060
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Cordelia Jensen holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and teaches creative writing in Philadelphia, where she lives with her husband and children. She is also the author of Skyscraping. Follow her on Twitter @cordeliajensen.

Read an Excerpt

What’s Alive
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Way The Light Bends"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Cordelia Jensen.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Young Readers Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Way the Light Bends

“I fell into Linc’s world and found myself changed by her journey. Readers will fall in love with her and her struggles.” --Dhonielle Clayton, author of the Tiny Pretty Things series and The Belles

“Achingly beautiful, honest and visceral. This is a must read for anyone who has questioned whether they belong.” --Meg Wiviott, author of Paper Hearts

"Linc’s struggle to chart her own future, unfolding in graceful verse, makes a compelling read." --Kirkus Reviews

"Give this book to any students who have ever felt invisible or who have ever struggled to feel at home in a traditional academic setting." --School Library Journal

"The meshing of word choice and space integrates the protagonist's inner struggles with her undeniable talent as a budding photographer." --Voice of Youth Advocates

"Rich with imagery that embodies longing and heart, a girl’s desire to recapture what was, and her joy over discovering her own kind of success." --Booklist

"The book tugs at the heartstrings by focusing on family dynamics and expectations that are universal experiences." --School Library Connection

From the Publisher

02/01/2018
Gr 7 Up—What happens when you have to choose between being yourself and pleasing others? This is a central question in this intricately woven novel in verse. Holly and Linc share an intense bond as sisters, but lately Holly is an academic superstar, while Linc's inability to succeed in school is a constant disappointment to their exacting mother. A blossoming photographer, Linc strives to make her parents and teachers register the value in her artistic vision; but she has a pervasive feeling that she does not belong at her competitive New York City school or within her own family. If only she could get into the Innovative Arts Academy, maybe everyone would understand her own vision for her life. A well-executed subplot sees Linc using her art to make the invisible history of Seneca Village, with its African American community and its Irish and German immigrants, visible. The author deftly avoids negative stereotyping in developing the diverse cast. Linc's best friend is gay. Holly was adopted from Ghana, while Linc is her parents' biological, though unplanned, daughter. The idea that "humans are their choices" is a pervasive and worthy message throughout the novel, and Linc learns to make wise and authentic choices. Her boyfriend turns out to deeply disappoint, and Linc closes off the relationship with a healthy finality. VERDICT Begging to be paired with Marilyn Nelson's My Seneca Village, give this book to any students who have ever felt invisible or who have ever struggled to feel at home in a traditional academic setting.—Melissa Williams, Berwick Academy, ME

School Library Journal

2017-12-06
Artistically gifted, academically challenged Linc is the biological child of white professional parents who wish Linc could be more like her black, transracially adopted sister, Holly—smart, athletic, popular.Holly's adoption from a Ghanaian orphanage was underway when Linc, four months younger, was conceived. Once close, the sisters' paths have diverged. Linc's on academic probation at their private school, where Holly's an academic superstar even while juggling a boyfriend, student government, and soccer. Linc's growing missteps (suggestive of ADD) trigger parental strictures and scolding lectures; her pleas for photography classes and transfer to an arts-focused school are vetoed. Revisiting Central Park's Seneca Village site—a 19th-century community of freed blacks and European immigrants—where she and Holly played as children, Linc's inspired to use photography to tell its history (its pre-European inhabitants aren't mentioned) for a school project. Park and library visits provide useful cover for secret photography classes and a romance with classmate and fellow artist Silas. Linc's solitary journey is convincing, but Holly, the only adopted character, never comes into focus. The questions and uncertainties she shares with Linc (wishing they'd visited her orphanage on the family's trip to Ghana, wondering about her birth mother) remain fundamentally unexplored. Holly remains an enigma, her character arc peripheral (her image is omitted from the cover), her story half-told.Occasionally pulled off course by tangential threads and underdeveloped characters, Linc's struggle to chart her own future, unfolding in graceful verse, makes a compelling read. (Fiction.13-17)

Kirkus Review

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