Backwater

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: "Backwater", by Joan Bauer, was a good book, but not one of the best books I've read.

Teenage Ivy Breedlove hates living in her family of lawyers, because no matter what she wants, she is expected to be a lawyer too. Ivy loves researching her family's history, because besides her lawyer ancestors, there are the different, but interesting ones - the ones "stuck in the backwater". When Ivy hears about her "crazy" aunt Josephine, she knows she has to find her, and she starts on a journey up a mountain to meet her.

This was a fairly exciting, interesting book, but not my favorite for several reasons. First of all, the storyline was a pretty unrealistic - a girl leaving her family to find a long lost aunt. Also, the spelling and grammer really needed to be edited better during the making of this book! Even so, this book was an entertaining read, quite funny at times, though it wouldn't become one of my favorites.

Rating:
Summary: I thought this book was realistic fiction, not surrealism!
Review: "Backwater" is a very well-written book. Though I did not like the general storyline, I did like the book. I didn't like the storyline because it just seemed a little too unrealistic. It's just too rare that you find a 16 year old girl from a family of attorneys that is so obsessed in her family's history that she risks her life climbing a mountain to find her long-lost aunt. Auntie Josephine just happens to be a hermit who is the mayor of Backwater, a town with a bird hospital, bird chapel, bird recreation center, and bird town hall. The residents are all-- you guessed it-- BIRDS. The climax is vey exciting, unexpected, and page-turning, even though the plot is so outrageous. If you need a definition for the word 'climax', read this book. Ms. Bauer is very descriptive when it comes to settings. She makes it very easy to paint a mental picture of the Breedlove family graveyard; gravestones hung with holly wreaths. She makes it seem like you're there alongside Ivy Breedlove and her aunt in Jo's mountaintop cabin. The characters were very well developed. It was as if you had known them at least a few years, not just a few pages. The only problem with the Breedloves is that there are so many of them it was hard to keep them straight. The dialogue was well-written as well. It moved at a good pace. There was enough of it to keep you reading, but not too much of it so you forgot what was happenning or who was talking. The one major theme in "Backwater" has got to be survival. Survival is evident even before Ivy goes up into the mountains. I agree with the librarian from CT that there are a lot of spelling errors. Ms. Bauer really shouldget an editor one of these days! Everything cooks pretty well together, and "Backwater" definitely has a unique taste to it.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: "Backwater", by Joan Bauer, was a good book, but not one of the best books I've read.

Teenage Ivy Breedlove hates living in her family of lawyers, because no matter what she wants, she is expected to be a lawyer too. Ivy loves researching her family's history, because besides her lawyer ancestors, there are the different, but interesting ones - the ones "stuck in the backwater". When Ivy hears about her "crazy" aunt Josephine, she knows she has to find her, and she starts on a journey up a mountain to meet her.

This was a fairly exciting, interesting book, but not my favorite for several reasons. First of all, the storyline was a pretty unrealistic - a girl leaving her family to find a long lost aunt. Also, the spelling and grammer really needed to be edited better during the making of this book! Even so, this book was an entertaining read, quite funny at times, though it wouldn't become one of my favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable
Review: Almost every family has a "black sheet" - a person who is shunned or even cast out by the family. Ivy Breedlove goes in search of Aunt Jo, the family secret, taking the reader with her. She discovers her aunt, herself, and...even her father on this journey.

Rating:
Summary: Backwater: Put it at the top of your reading list
Review: An outstanding piece of young adult literature that follows young Ivy Breedlove through her quest to complete a family history. Ivy searches, and finds, her long lost Aunt, and through her interactions with Josephine, begins to understand her self. Outstanding read. The book is dominated by female characters; however, as a male, I found it very easy to identify with most of the females, something quite unusual. Highly, highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Backwater instantly grabbed my attention at the first page. I was a little hesitant after reading Rules of the Road because I had loved that book and wasn't sure if Backwater could be as good. But I was wrong to doubt it- it was even better. The expression, the suspense, the triumph, and the unexpected ending all made this book a very enjoyable read. Not only that, but it makes you think about solitude and personalities and history while presenting a strong main character who knows what she wants. I highly recommend this superb book.

Rating:
Summary: Backwater
Review: I bought this book for my 10-year-old son after he enjoyed another Joan Bauer book, Hope Was Here. Backwater is a wonderful story of a girl, Ivy, who is sensitive and does not fit in with her family of aggressive lawyers.

Ivy is looking into her family history when she finds that her aunt Josephine is a hermit up in the mountains. The more Ivy learns about her aunt, the more she recognizes that they are kindred spirtits, and Ivy sets out to find her aunt. Ivy finds a wilderness guide to lead her to Josephine.

Joan Bauer shows a marvelous understanding of the sensitive soul of Josephine. Along the way, Ivy finds strength in herself that she never knew existed, and this strength helps transform her entire family.

Backwater teaches the importance of finding your own talents and celebrating them. I am a practicing psychologist, and I will be recommending this book to my patients from 10 years through adulthood.

Rating:
Summary: A moving story of a girl finding out it is ok to be herself.
Review: I bought this book for my 10-year-old son after he enjoyed another Joan Bauer book, Hope Was Here. Backwater is a wonderful story of a girl, Ivy, who is sensitive and does not fit in with her family of aggressive lawyers.

Ivy is looking into her family history when she finds that her aunt Josephine is a hermit up in the mountains. The more Ivy learns about her aunt, the more she recognizes that they are kindred spirtits, and Ivy sets out to find her aunt. Ivy finds a wilderness guide to lead her to Josephine.

Joan Bauer shows a marvelous understanding of the sensitive soul of Josephine. Along the way, Ivy finds strength in herself that she never knew existed, and this strength helps transform her entire family.

Backwater teaches the importance of finding your own talents and celebrating them. I am a practicing psychologist, and I will be recommending this book to my patients from 10 years through adulthood.

Rating:
Summary: Humorous with some depth
Review: I enjoyed "Rules of the Road" more, but this book has much to offer as well. I like the emphasis on being able to make your own decisions about your life and on facing your fears. It also discusses the importance of family (present and past) and good communication. As always, Bauer's central character is a strong-minded female who has more on her mind than boys and being popular. But romance isn't exactly the last thing on her mind, either! A fine sense of humor, both Bauer's and her characters', is evident throughout.

If I could, I'd give this book 3.5 stars rather than 3. But I found it a little too didactic and overstated at times to rate it higher. Bauer sometimes simply worked too hard when making her points. And the editing is very poor. I'm not sure if the possessive "its" is used correctly anywhere in the book. Instead, we get "it's". We also get spelling errors such as "peek" for "peak". One grammatical/spelling error in a book can be overlooked, but a dozen can't and shouldn't be.

Rating:
Summary: Breath Taking
Review: I read this book in two days. My names Amanda and I'm 15. This book is breath taking. It has suspense, adventure and romance. It starts out with a girl named Ivy Breedlove who feels left out of her famliy because she doesn't won't to be a lawyer like everyone else. She starts in on doing her history of the Breedloves and intervues everyone in the family except one person whom she is unable to find. Soon she traks her down and has to climb a mountain to get to her. While hiking up the mountain she runs into a guy named Jack and falls in love with him. After meeting her aunt she discovers her missing link and is faced with death. I suggest that you buy this book today, it's really good.