Review: Bluefish

Bluefish by Pat Schmatz
Find it at a local indie! 

• Why I read it: Quirky supporting characters, wrong side of the tracks
• Disclosure: Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks!

Travis is missing his old home in the country, and he’s missing his old hound, Rosco. Now there’s just the cramped place he shares with his well-meaning but alcoholic grandpa; a new school and the dreaded routine of passing when he’s called on to read out loud. But that’s before Travis meets Mr. McQueen, who doesn’t take “pass” for an answer – a rare teacher whose savvy persistence has Travis slowly unlocking a book on the natural world. And it’s before Travis is noticed by Velveeta, a girl whose wry banter and colorful scarves belie some hard secrets of her own. With sympathy, humor, and the disarming honesty, Pat Schmatz brings to life a cast of utterly believable characters – and captures the moments of trust and connection that make all the difference.

Good YA is the balance between the artsy and the readable. Good YA is also the balance between the story teens need to hear, and the one they want to hear. Good YA requires a connection between author and reader perhaps more than in any other genre; a sort of telepathy, and loyalty. Bluefish is perhaps one of the most crystallized examples of good YA I have ever read, bringing to mind the classics by Judy Blume and Louis Sachar, the ones I read before I even knew what YA was.

We have a rural setting, somewhere. One that's quirky enough to be interesting, and one that's just general enough to be there. Anywhere. Mostly on the wrong side of the tracks. This is good, because a setting that became a character would have competed with the fantastic characters we've been given.

The relationship between Travis - withdrawn, sullen, a fighter, embarrassed about a secret that anyone could guess - and Velveeta - bubbly, quirky, trying to make up for something, and we don't know what - is what drives the novel. I cared about these characters. In both, polar opposites, I found shades of myself (and in Velveeta, shades of Juno, if you'd thrown in a teen pregnancy).

In one of my favorite scenes, a friend of theirs that happily takes the role of Third Wheel - an avid videogamer, one of the "gifted" kids, black to their white trash, unimaginably privileged in Travis and Velveeta's eyes - brings lunch to school. I think it's squash ravioli, and his mother made it for him from scratch. And Travis and Velveeta wonder if they, too, had had parents that cared for them enough to make lunches from scratch, would they be the "gifted" kids? It's understated and pitch-perfect, and the kind of moment that I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

Unfortunately, it slips somewhat by the end. There's slightly too much reaching towards a happy ending for my taste, and slightly too much precocious awareness of its quirks. Still, reading this at the same age I devoured Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret and Holes, would I have cared a whit about those flaws? Absolutely not. It's the kind of book that deserves to be checked out again and again from the library, beloved by generation after generation and remembered fondly in college and beyond. While older teens might not find enough grit to hold their attention, it's my go-to recommendation for middle schoolers and new-to-high-schoolers this year. Five out of five stars.

Bluefish will be released September 13th, 2011.