Pick-Up Sticks

by Sarah Ellis

Thirteen-year-old Polly loves life — with her single-parent mom (a stained-glass artist), her quirky best friend Vanessa (who has a crush on their English teacher), and her endearing neighbor Ernie Protheroe (who collects postal codes and TV theme songs). But when the house they live in is sold, Polly’s perfect life seems to vanish overnight. Her mom doesn’t have much luck finding them an affordable place to live. And Polly is beginning to think that having a father — and a conventional lifestyle — wouldn’t be such a bad idea. As an interim solution, Polly goes to stay with her affluent relatives. But Uncle Roger turns out to be crass and chilly, his wife is self-indulgent, and their daughter, Polly’s teenage cousin, is on a shoplifting spree. With humor and compassion, Sarah Ellis portrays adolescent enlightenment, as Polly discovers that like the child’s game of pick-up sticks, each part of life touches every other and cannot be disturbed without affecting the whole.

Genres: Canada, Juvenile, Young Adult, Family, Fiction, Childrens

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Writer, columnist, and librarian Sarah Ellis has become one of the best-known authors for young adults in her native Canada with titles such as The Baby Project, Pick-Up Sticks, and Back of Beyond: Stories of the Supernatural. In addition to young adult novels, Ellis has also written for younger children and has authored several books about the craft of writing. Praised by Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman as "one of the best children's literature critics," Ellis "writes without condescension or pedantry. . . . Her prose is a delight: plain, witty, practical, wise."

Ellis was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1952, the youngest of three children in her family. As she once noted, "[My] joy in embroidering the truth probably comes from my own childhood. My father was a rich mine of anecdotes and jokes. He knew more variations on the 'once there were three men in a rowboat' joke than anyone I've encountered since.

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early 90s slice-of-teenage-life story about the affordable housing crisis in Vancouver and how it affects a single-parent family.

Backcover:

Polly loves her life. Her small but cosy bedroom lit by the stained-glass window made by her artist mother, the nutty schemes of her best friend, Vanessa, the Protheroes who live downstairs - it all seems so right that Polly hardly notices that she's never known her father.
But when the house is suddenly sold, and it becomes obvious that her mother isn't very good at finding a new home they can afford, Polly's perfect life seems to go down the drain overnight. No more French horn practices in the bathroom. Mo more cosy evenings watching reruns of Gilligan's Island and helping Ernie Protheroe with his postal code collection. No more spying on Vanessa's heart-throb, their English teacher, Mr. Taylor.
Most of all, Polly wonders if she can ever forgive her mum for not making enough money, and for her long-ago decision to have a baby on her own, when having a father now surely would help solve their problems.
A warm, moving and frequently very funny story about being the daughter of a wonderful but infuriating mother. Winner of the 1991 Governor-General's award.

If you change that last paragraph to read 'mildly amusing' in place of 'very funny', I'd say it's an accurate description. I think the legendary Bon's Off Broadway is represented by "Dot n Didi's" cafe, but I could be wrong.

There's a theme of class-war running through the book (contrast single-mother, stained-glass artist mom Joan(ie) looking into leaky basement suites and cooperative housing and trying to pay dental bills with custom artwork, vs. wealthy, racist Uncle Roger, beautiful but hollow Aunt Barbie, and puerile (her favourite word and a worthy descriptor) punk-ass older cousin Stephanie, the petty thief, smoker and property vandal).

Ernie, Polly's differently abled neighbour who cannot read but memorizes postal codes and old episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Gilligan's Island, etc., steals the scenes. He's absolutely lovely and sweet and a simple source of truth and happiness. Polly and him have a lovely friendship, and this contrasts so nicely with her dysfunctional and toxic extended family living on the North Shore (at least, that's how I read it. Might have been anywhere in Point Grey, Marpole or the like, I suppose. Mom's rented art studio is out in Burnaby, so I got the sense that Polly lived in East Van).

Polly's friend Vanessa seems to exist solely for comic relief. I don't think I was even moved to crack a smile myself, but I could see how others might be amused by her, I guess. She's in love with and stalking (innocently) her English teacher, who turns out to be a total dickhead, and yet she refuses to see him in a negative light. That's the end of Vanessa in this story, as we carry on with the plot of Polly and her mom desperately seeking non-existent affordable housing.

There's lots of mother-daughter interaction, and a big fight along the lines of, "You're so proud you chose to be a single-mother, but look at our bullshit life as a result of that proud decision!". It all works itself out, and the relationship was a good one in the first place, so no major resentment or estrangement results. (This book reminds me a lot of a picture book I read from the same era, in the same city: My Mom Is So Unusual, about a girl and her single mom who sometimes leans a little heavily on her daughter to bear the responsibilities of adult life for her).

I can see why Sarah Ellis won the GG award for this. It's really not my kind of fiction, but it is relatively well-written. I would read more by this author, if the setting (as in this case) or the plot summary attracts me.

[Bri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really love Sarah Ellis' writing, and I loved all the concepts of this, but it felt like it was just a short insight right in the middle of Polly's life - you don't get to know any of her history until the end of the book, and there are a lot of loose ends left. But I love the characters, and I loved the "A tree grows in brooklyn" feel :)

(I don't normally write reviews, but felt that this book needed to have at least one!!)

[Laina SpareTime]

Cross-posted from my blog where there's more information on where I got my copy and links and everything.

This was okay. I really liked Sarah Ellis’s writing as a kid so I have some nostalgia for this book, but I wasn’t blown away. If I read this as a kid, which I probably did, I would have liked it. It’s not really doing much for me these days, but I’m not mad I read it. It’s sweet and Ellis’ writing is nice. There’s actually a 2014 release from them I’d like to check out. Mad props on the long-ass career, seriously.

I’ll probably pass this one along to a better home just because at this stage of my life, I don’t really need this, but I’m sure it’ll find one easily enough.

Representation: There’s a surprisingly well-written intellectually disabled man in this. The narration calls him “child like” once which isn’t great, but overall for 1991 it’s not bad. He’s just like… treated like a person. Shocking, I know.

[Magdalena O! · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short slice of life of a teen figuring out life in BC on the heels of the recession. Her mom (single by choice) is a stained glass painter, politically radical, and eventually (we assume) ends up in a co OP with her daughter.

Much of the story is when the protagonist goes to live with her rich, racist, and obnoxious uncle and his family in the suburbs. She chooses to move in with him after her mom is renovicted by new owners of the building who want to bulldoze it into condos. She dreams of a better, fancier life, but then seems how money often makes people shitty and entitled.

It made me reflect on my own childhood poverty and what kind of person it made me.

The struggle of a mother-daughter relationship that wasn't cliche from the teen perspective also made me reflect on motherhood.

I appreciate the recognition of racism which isn't often in 1980s and 1990s Cancon by white writers.

[sam ! · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book reminds me of fruits and dirt. sand and water. walking back home from school on a sunny, but cold fall day. i really liked this book. 4 stars.

[Audrey Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had this book for a long time and finally read it. What a delight! A great story for teenagers as well as adults. Life never turns out the way we hope but sometimes it still has its joys.

[Lee]

Mooched.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the same themes as her newest book, but without such great characters and subtlety.

[Claire Chun · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story about a girl named Polly who lives with a singlemother. She faces an unexpected challenge of her life when the house where she has lived most of her life is sold and her mother is unable to find a proper place to live that they could afford. She resents and confronts her mother for choosing to have a child on her own and for not having a stable career that can find them a place to live. After staying with her wealthy uncle for several weeks, she learns where she truly belongs and returns to stay with her mother n a small studio.