Follow the Blue

by Brigid Lowry

Life isn't neat and tidy. It's like a whole lot of balls of brightly colored wool thrown in a basket, with stray beginnings and endings and possibilities everywhere. Let's follow the blue.

Fifteen-year-old Bec has always been the good girl. Growing up with an eccentric celebrity chef mother and a father who suffers from depression, Bec is used to taking care of her two younger siblings and being labeled "the sensible one." But when Bec's parents decide to take a six-week tour of the U.S., she decides that she is sick of being responsible and is ready for some adventures of her own. She meets a new friend named Jaz, dyes her hair, wins money, throws her first party, and then there's the boy thing...
In this intoxicating novel by award-winning author and poet Brigid Lowry, Bec realizes that maybe she isn't so ordinary after all—and that sometimes it doesn't hurt to, as her mother would say, "lighten up and enjoy the ride."

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Australia, Fiction, Childrens, Contemporary, Friendship

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Brigid Lowry was born in New Zealand into a rather strange but very creative family. Here she learned a love of books, too many swear words and how to cook a decent omelette. Brigid's early, rather awful poetry was made into a small book by her father, a printer and typographer, and sold to kindly relatives for two and sixpence a copy. Thus her writing career was launched, but it took about twenty years for her to take it to a higher place. In the meantime she tried being a hippie, a waitress, a software tutor, a librarian, a mother, a wife and a primary school teacher.

At the age of thirty five Brigid returned to university and began to publish poetry and short fiction. Her first young adult book was Fizz & Max & Me, which was published in the Dolly Fiction series. As well as teaching her how to write dialogue, this book paid Brigid the grand sum of $3000 and inspired her to apply for an Arts Council Grant for funding to write a second young adult book. With the grant safely in the bank, armed with nothing more than a flimsy idea about a girl who wanted a nose-ring, Brigid wrote Guitar Highway Rose. Constructed in a quirky collage style, this book was a runaway success. It was shortlisted for a number of major prizes in Australia, and won the WA Hoffman Young Readers Choice Award.

Brigid's star sign is Aries, and she has a tattoo of an island, a palm tree and a planet on her left shoulder. She has an MA in Creative Writing and teaches creative writing here and there. Brigid is currently working on a new young adult book and has recently returned to live in her homeland, New Zealand, after living for 27 wonderful years in Australia.

Reviews

[Sienna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Umm... this book was interesting... Very umm... DISGUSTING!!!!!!!! I cant believe I even finished a book that rank! Ewwww!

If it was possible, I would give this book a BELOW ZERO! ifthis is how teenages act, there is no way I want to be one (Yes, I'm only 12... Merely picking up this book thinking... 'Oh this cover is nice!', and NOT CHECKING THE BLURB!) WARNING: Not for young eyes!

[kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted here: http://bibliotekit.blogspot.co.uk/201...

Bec lives in Perth with her mum, celebrity chef Vera, and her dad, Lewis, as well as her younger brother Josh and her little sister Bing. When Lewis has a breakdown and has to spend some time in a hospital, Bec's world starts to tilt slightly. When Lewis comes home, everything is meant to go back to normal. Instead, the world just keeps tilting.

Follow The Blue is one of those read-it-in-a-day books, simultaneously about everything and nothing. "Following the blue" is how Bec frames the story, just one thread out of many tangled ones. When Vera and Lewis embark on a publicity trip for Vera's new book, first across Australia and then to the US, Bec is left at home with oh-so-serious Josh, crazy Bing, and their new housekeeper, Mrs D, who rubs Bec up the wrong way.

If that wasn't enough, Bec's friends are talking about boys and sex, while Bec wonders if she'll ever be interested in a boy at all. Her best friend has moved to New York. Bec's new friend, Jaz, is everything Bec wants in a friend, but Jaz brings her own complications: a hot older brother, Nick, as well as Nick's best friend, Steve. Add in missing guinea pigs, homework, and having nothing to wear, and Bec's head is swimming.

The book follows Bec's life during the few weeks that her parents are away. Nothing earth shattering happens, but that's what I liked about this book. Nothing earth shattering has to happen, because everything that does - the boys, the parties, the subtly changing friendships - are surely earth shattering enough as a fifteen year old. The story is actually one long flashback, and the writing fits perfectly: dreamy, almost, like the events are being remembered through a haze of summertime. There are no definite chapters, just a stream of snippets of conversations, images and colours that pull you in and take you along for the ride.

There were a lot of things I liked about this book. I thought Bec's relationship with Josh and Bing was brilliantly drawn, and Lowry captured that closeness between siblings that is different from anything else. I liked how Mrs D was woven into the story, and how she turned out to be not so bad after all. I liked how everyone did their homework. What I mean by that is: you know how in films when no one locks their doors? It seems like in a lot of YA, school is just one of those things that can be dispensed with. Everyone's having an endless summer. Here, school and homework are always there in the background. These were teenagers I could believe in, all zits and bravado and secret agonising.

If you like contemporary young adult, I would definitely recommend it as a quick and enjoyable read, quietly touching without overdoing it. This isn't quite a romance, nor a home-alone adventure, nor a high school book. Follow The Blue, in the end, is just about growing up.

Overall rating: 8/10

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very exciting and funny. It is about a girl who has a crush on her best friends older brother. This is really the first time that she has ever liked a boy. But then she meets the boy of her dreams best friend and she falls in love with him too! Then it's hard on her because she is forced to choose who she likes best. And ten she ends up kissing the boy of her dreams friend and it starts to cause a big problem.

[Neenah =]] · Rating 3 out of 5]

I jst finished reading this and well hmm..idk wat to say..it was real slow and boring in the begining but then it slowly started to grab my attention,it got better and better eventually. Personally I liked it :)

[AquaMoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm... I didn't like this as much as Guitar Highway Rose. And it was a pretty slow-burn. But it was cute in a very 1990s-Book-About-Nothing sort of way that managed to be lightly coming-of-age-y. I gotta wonder if Bec's character is a touch of a Synesthetic, what with her always assigning colors to feelings and moods and situations.

p.s. It was a bit odd having the characters celebrating Xmas in the middle of Summer. That kind of made me have to stop and think (Wait...what?), but then I reminded myself that the book is set in the Southern Hemisphere and everything is backward there. Or, at least backward from what I'm used to (it's normal for them). I suppose it's not something you really think about until you encounter it. So that was weird-cool.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brigid Lowry needs to write more teen fiction, because I love her books. Her characters speak and act like real people instead of those what-the-author-thinks-a-teen-sounds/acts-like characters that never seen quite plausible. And side note--I love the slang/dialect in the dialogue. Why don't we use words like, prezzies, scrummy, gluggy and pongy?

[Arminda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in high school and loved it.

[Sarah Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

20 years isn't long enough to make a book this deeply nostalgic yet somehow it is. The shortcut through Myers and the geography of Perth steeping in, and that distinct SW slang was a joy choice.

[Ron · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are few things as outdated as a hip and happening peek into the world of a teenager when seen at the distance of half a generation.

This particular peek was written in the late nineties, which is not long enough ago for it to have acquired the charm of nostalgia. Even when 1999 *is* that long ago, this will remain a book that's not very well written, I'm afraid, and that one rather considerable flaw will completely offset any rosy glow that readers who grew up in the last years before mobile phones may feel for the period.

Badly written? Well, it's not really a narrative. Things just happen in it, like they do in non-fictional life. It's more like a diary than a novel. I already have a non-fictional life, thank you. I don't want to read about the fictional-non-fictional life of an imaginary character.

That aside, allow me to return to my original thesis: does YA fiction have a Use By Date? Is there a point in time where it either becomes The Catcher in the Rye or it becomes landfill?

I think yes.

[Ryleigh forist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Follow the blue is a book about a girl named Bec. This book is realistic fiction because pretty much what happens to Bec could happen to anyone. I personally liked this book because it puts you in the place of this teen.

Bec is a fifteen year old girl whos dad had a breakdown.Her parents left leaving an old housekeeper named Mrs.D in their place. To top it off Bec has two annoying siblings, named Bing and Josh. Bec is well known for her sensibility, but she doesn't like that. So she decides to dye her hair and throw a party that her parents don't know about, only Mrs.D does.

I really enjoyed reading this book because you wonder what would happen next to this wild teen. The whole time shes having this party you wondering, will she get caught?

well the only way you'll find out is if you read this book, you will be taken on this journey through her life with her. you get closer to the characters as you read.

[Jonnie Comet · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Sue Limb does with Jess in 'Girl, 15, Flirting for England', Brigid Lowry does with Bec this eminently decent bit of Australian bildungsroman. I enjoyed it from cover to cover; just wish the scenes with the cannabis weren't done so amorally (this book does have an impressionable teen audience). But the characterisations are spot-on and the protagonist is credible and amusing. I'll be reading much more of Ms Lowry's work.

[Lynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bec lives in Australia with a cooking celebrity mom and a depressed architect dad. Her parents go on a trip to America for 5 weeks and Bec's life kind of falls apart. However, she grows up with the help of her friends, people around her and her siblings. It was a good coming of age story and I liked the difference in language since it takes place in Australia.

[Betsy Jibson · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intricate novel about a girl's experience when her dad has a bout with depression and comes out of it again. Too much talk about sex and a lot of illegal activity. Good descriptive passages, but not enough to warrant the rest of the novel.

[Monae · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was little slow, and I don't really think it was worth the time it took to read it. Plus little too much talk about teenage sexuality. I was just never sure where the story was going.

[Janie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. It ambled along for quite a while, but I did like the writing. I thought the protagonist was a little bit of a whiny butt, to tell you the truth. Definitley not my favorite book, but it's an okay beach read.

[Firefly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightful romp of self-discovery. The girl seeks independence and finds that the world is more full than she ever imagined. I recommend this as an enjoyable book for anyone who feels ready to break out of her shell.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be a bit slow. I got about halfway through it, so perhaps it picks up later, but it wasn't interesting enough to keep me reading it. There was some unnecessary language and slight sexual comments.

[Gen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book a few times as a teenager and really liked it. Tells the story of a girl who is left in charge of her younger siblings while her parents are away and decides she wants to have some fun of her own.

[michelle]

11/21/06

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still reading this one...
but it seems so far like a good book.:)

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually can't believe one of the characters in the book has the same full name as me. Haha. It's a pretty good read. =]

[Christina Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was kind of slow but it started to get more intresting. It also had some pretty intresting tutorials. I enjoyed the creativity used by the author to create the family and the characters.

[Kacie]

Pretty good, although the ending was a little frustrating. I think I liked Guitar Highway Rose better.

[Kalina7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book what feels like an age ago, yet when I signed up yesterday it was one of those books that I had to drop a review about, I guess that says enough.

[Selena · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought this book was a great example of teenage life it was just a great novel to read especially as a relaxing summer book with a splash of pretty funny humor

[Broken_Heart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved it....It had everything you could of asked for;
Friends,Family,Love,Boys and so much more.
I think anyone would like it or even love it like I did!

-Micaela

[Nana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty sad, but I was happy at the end :)

[Clodagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a beautiful book!