Booktalking "Catalyst" by Laurie Halse Anderson
Kate Malone is a super-charged high school senior, long-distance runner, and she has her heart set on attending MIT. No other college will do. At her school, everyone is defined by their grade point averages and college destinations. Kate, with her brother Toby, minister father, Siamese cat Sophia, and black lab Mr. Spock, take on the world. National Honor Society member and perfectionist, Kate's thoughts run a mile a minute.
Then tragedy strikes, more than once. Kate ends up living with Teri Litch, a girl who used to beat her up. A least two-year-old Mikey keeps the love alive. Then, Mikey is buried on a perversely sunshiny day. After the boy's death, Kate builds an unbroken circle of his toy vehicles around herself and Teri as they sit back-to-back. Teri insists on attending school with Kate the day before the funeral. She piggybacks onto Kate's classes, and promptly falls asleep on her desk in chemistry class. The teacher mercifully overlooks it.
The poignancy and kindness that develops between Kate and Teri is touching, and the joy and happiness that the community experience while rebuilding a family's house dulls the pain of the fire.
Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson, 2002
The prose in this book is lyrically poetic; the author really has a way with words. Incidentally, the author's father was a minister. Laurie Halse Anderson is a brilliant writer; the book is quick-witted and really moves along with an unexpected, refreshingly abrupt ending. Usually, I do not read many novels that have diffuse themes. This book lacks cohesion and is not about one specific thing. It is about life. Things happen, people deal; somehow the way that random events occur lends this novel a reality that is startling.
Laurie Halse Anderson draws inspiration from the Bucks County Writers' Group.
I am not a fan of the title of this book; there is not a single catalyst for change in the book. A series of events in Teri's and Kate's lives join them together and gradually lead to change.
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