Being Fishkill - by Ruth Lehrer (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Born in the backseat of a moving car, Carmel Fishkill was unceremoniously pushed into a world that refuses to offer her security, stability, love. At age thirteen, she begins to fight back. Carmel Fishkill becomes Fishkill Carmel, who deflects her tormenters with a strong left hook and conceals her secrets from teachers and social workers. But Fishkill's fierce defenses falter when she meets eccentric optimist Duck-Duck Farina, and soon they, along with Duck-Duck's mother, Molly, form a tentative family, even as Fishkill struggles to understand her place in it. This fragile new beginning is threatened by the reappearance of Fishkill's unstable mother -- and by unfathomable tragedy. Poet Ruth Lehrer's young adult debut is a stunning, revelatory look at what defines and sustains "family." And, just as it does for Fishkill, meeting Duck-Duck Farina and her mother will leave readers forever changed.

Review Quotes

Lehrer pulls at heartstrings in her thought-provoking debut...a complex and well-plotted work.
--Booklist

In Lehrer's engrossing first novel, 12-year-old Carmel Fishkill (named after a highway exit sign her mother, Keely, glimpsed while giving birth in the back seat of a car) decides that starting seventh grade in a new school is an opportunity to toughen up her image...The plot, as well as Duck-Duck and Fishkill's friendship, twists and turns as Keely reappears and disappears, until a tragic development changes the entire tone of the book, providing a bittersweet resolution.
--Publishers Weekly

Lehrer's debut is well written and touches upon tough subjects such as bullying, abuse, and teen pregnancy in a lyrical but age-appropriate way. Fishkill lives a hard life, but the book speaks to how schools and institutions handle students in poverty. A great purchase for public libraries.
--School Library Journal

The deep sadness undergirding this story is held in check, rhetorically speaking, by Fishkill's matter-of-fact, survivalist perspective and a fast-moving plot...Fans of Catherine Ryan Hyde's rescue dramas are the audience for this.
--Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

In the year's most heartwarming, heartbreaking teen novel, Carmel Fishkill - who's been abused for years - decides to reinvent herself and change her name to Fishkill Carmel. After she finally finds some solace, her unstable mother reappears.
--Entertainment Weekly

Poet Lehrer's YA debut is a beautifully written and authentic look at rural poverty, and a great choice for fans of Kody Keplinger's Run and Sarah Nicole Lemon's Done Dirt Cheap.
--B&N Teen Blog

About the Author