Slick

by Sara Cassidy

Liza, determined to prove that her mother's boyfriend is no good, starts researching the oil company he works for. Liza discovers a lawsuit against the company for compensation that is long overdue to Guatemalan farmers. She starts a group at school called GRRR! (Girls for Renewable Resources, Really!) and launches an attack on Argenta Oil. As her activism activities increase, her objections to her mother's boyfriend become political. She is learning to separate the personal from the political, but when her mother discovers her plans for a demonstration outside the Argenta Oil head office, the two collide in ways Liza least suspected.

Genres: Young Adult, Family, Activism, Realistic Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Sara Cassidy is an award-winning Canadian author of 20 acclaimed books for children and teens. Her early novel GENIUS JOLENE won the 2020 Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. Her middle-grade novel NEVERS was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award in Young People's Literature and the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Two novels appeared on Kirkus's Best Middle Grade Books of 2018 and 2016: THE GREAT GOOGLINI and A BOY NAMED QUEEN.

She is the author of the highly praised picture book FLOCK, and the wordless graphic novels KUNOICHI BUNNY and HELEN'S BIRDS, a 2021 Canadian selection for the Silent Books Collection (IBBY). Her board books include I MAKE SPACE, about creating boundaries, THE SUN IS A PEACH and THE MOON IS A SILVER POND, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Sara lives on Vancouver Island and loves to visit classrooms over Zoom/Skype/Teams. sarascassidy@gmail.com

Reviews

[Jacob S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was very good. How smart she was to see the trucks in the background of the video. And she took lot of time making this group. She looked up all about the website and the oil place. Overall I thought it was a very good book. And it payed off for the girls and whoever helped them.

[Aniketh Datta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is the Link to my project: https://soundcloud.com/aniketh-datta/...

Some people hate change. Liza, the main character in the book Slick by Sara Cassidy, hates the way that her family is changing. The theme of the book that my partner and I came up with was people hate change. Her father and mother got divorced, and her mom is now dating a mom named Slick, who she hates. I thought that the abstract noun of hatred could be represented very well by the instruments and lyrics of music. The two genres of music that I chose were EDM (seven songs), and Pop music (three songs).

Warning, the descriptions of my songs may contain spoilers.

The first song that I chose for my playlist is Let You Go by The Chainsmokers. The main reason why I chose this song to represent the theme of the book is because of the lyrics. The words “How will I let you go” show how Liza is feeling about her life before her patents got divorced. She doesn’t want to let go of the times when her dad was around because she has so many memories of him. The second reason why I chose this song is because of the synths used at the drop of the song. The sounds that were used in the drop make me remember how my life was before I moved away from Michigan and how different I was back then. The song makes me miss how I was before I moved, which is how Liza is feeling in the Book.

The second song that I chose is When we were young By Dillon Francis Dillon Francis with Sultan & Ned Shepard featuring The Chain Gang of 1974. This song is related to the first song in the playlist in a very strong way, when it comes to the Lyrics. The main line of the song “But do you remember, how it felt when we were young?” also made me think about what Liza may have been thinking in her. She is asking herself and at times even her mom about how it felt when she young, and when her dad was still around versus how she is feeling now. The line “Today… we have the chance to feel again..” show how she is feeling after she realizes that Slick isn’t as bad as she originally thought he was. This is when she begins to accept him as a father figure.

The third song that I chose for my playlist is Burn Down by Tom and Jame. The main reasons why I chose this song have to do with the lyrics and the instruments used. The line “I’ll be running out ’til I burn down” resemble the fact that Liza does not want to except Slick as her new “father” and into her family. The line in the song made me think about how Liza tries to avoid him as much as possible and does not want to have anything to do with him. The instruments used at the drop of the song are slightly more aggressive than the ones used in the other songs. The instruments reminded me of the hatred that she shows toward Slick, not only how she does not want to have anything to do with him. The lyrics and the instruments in the song go hand in hand.

The forth song that I chose is Gold Skies by Martin Garrix, DVBBS, and Slander Van Doorn featuring Aleesia. I chose this song for one main reason; its lyrics. The lyrics in the song can mean different things to different people. To me, the lyrics connect to the theme because of the line “We will forever be faded under gold skies.” People may see the words “Gold Skies” as a good thing and that it may show happiness. However I interpreted the line as a way of the authors showing. I think that the gold skies may be her mom;s love towards Slick, which is fading her feelings to her mom. This means that her mom’s love is blinding her from realizing that Liza has a huge problem with slick.

The fifth song that I chose is No! by CID. I mainly chose this song due the lyrics in it. The lyrics “I don’t want non of your time” further proves that Liza does not want Slick around, she doesn’t want to be around him, and that she doesn’t want him in her life. The lyrics int he song do not try to hide the fact that the person singing the song doesn’t want the other person’s time, much like the way that Liza does not try to hide that fact that she hates him and doesn’t want him around.

The sixth song that I chose is is Missing by EDX. The song mainly shows the theme that people hate change through its lyrics. The words “And I miss you”, like in many of the other tracks show how she misses her life before Slick was in it and before everything began to change. It shows how something doesn’t have to be a concrete noun for it to be missed. She may miss her dad, however she also missed her old life, which is kind of an abstract noun.

The seventh song that I chose is Stressed out by 21 Pilots. The song mainly connects with the theme because it focuses on wishing that your childhood didn’t change. The last thing that Liza wanted was her childhood to change, however it did, and she wished it didn’t. The song and the theme of the book go hand in hand because they have share a kind of theme with each other.

The eighth song that I chose is Pompeii by Bastille. I chose this because it is based off of the city of Pompeii. The city was destroyed by a volcano centuries ago. In regards to Liza, the volcano is Slick, and Pompeii is her. Slick is (in her eyes) destroying her family, and she didn’t want this happen. She believes that is her mom stays with him, her life will be nothing but ruins.

The ninth song that I chose is See You again by Wiz Khalifa feat. Charlie Puth. I chose this song because it really digs deep into peoples’ emotions. The song is about family and how even when people leave, it will be okay and that your life will still continue. This connects to the book because, to her, when her dad left, things kept on getting worse in her life, including the addition of Slick in her life. However, later in the book, she realizes that it will be okay.

The tenth and final song in my playlist is Stay With Me by Sam Smith (Cole Plante Remix). I chose the remixed version of the track because it added a bit more vibe to the original song. The lyrics themselves say “Won’t you stay with me?”. This connects to how she feels about her mom. She feels that Slick is trying to take her mom away from her and her brothers, but she doesn’t want him to. When Liza realizes that Slick may not be as bad of a guy as she thinks, she can’t imagine her world without him.

In my perspective, the above ten songs represent the theme in the book (Slick by Sara Cassidy), which is people hate change. They dig deep into your emotions and really made me think about the book when I heard them.

[Orion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate you truly. Truly I do.
Everything about me hates everything about you.
The flick of my wrist hates you.
The way I hold my pencil hates you.
The soaund made by my tiniest bones were they trapped in the jaws of a moray eel hates you.
Each corpuscle singing in its capillary hates you.

Look out! Fore! I hate you.

The little blue-green speck of sock lint I'm trying to dig from under my third toenail, left foot, hates you.
The history of this keychain hates you.
My sigh in the background as you pick out the cashews hates you.
The goldfish of my genius hates you.
My aorta hates you. Also my ancestors.

A closed window is both a closed window and an obvious symbol of how I hate you.

My voice curt as a hairshirt: hate.
My hesitation when you invite me for a drive: hate.
My pleasant "good morning": hate.
You know how when I'm sleepy I nuzzle my head under your arm? Hate.

The whites of my target-eyes articulate hate. My wit practices it.
My breasts relaxing in their holster from morning to night hate you.
Layers of hate, a parfait.
Hours after our latest row, brandishing the sharp glee of hate,
I dissect you cell by cell, so that I might hate each one individually and at leisure.
My lungs, duplicitous twins, expand with the utter validity of my hate, which can never have enough of you,
Breathlessly, like two idealists in a broken submarine.

----------------------------------------------------------

Summary of this Poem:
In this Poem, Hate Poem, this talks about the protagonist colorfully stating how much she hates this person. The protagonist talks about how each of her body parts hates this other person. Then proceeds to use everyday objects and abstract nouns and claims that they hate the other person as well. This is a poem dealing with a deep hate for someone.


Summary of Slick:
The book starts off in a car when the main character, Liza, is with her mom and her two brothers driving. They then arrive at her mother's new boyfriend's house. After the divorce of her mom and her dad, her mom had been dating a guy named Robert. He seemed like a decent guy but Liza hates him with a passion. Robert is given the nickname Slick, due to the fact that the works at Argenta Oil. One day during school, Liza watched a documentary on Guatemala where Argenta Oil was mining Oil, but to do so destroyed some land and had trucks moving through constantly. In the opening scene of the documentary, it shows kids playing soccer until huge trucks come by whipping up a sandstorm and making it near impossible to play soccer with the noise and vibrations going through the ground. This makes Liza sympathize for the kids. She then starts something called GRRR, Girls for Renewable Resources Really! GRRR then goes to protest against Argenta Oil about how it is treating Guatemala and not compensating the farmers they promised to compensate. After a rally, the CEO went to announce he would compensate the farmers. GRRR would then continue to help do environment saving things.


Thematic concept in this Poem:
The thematic concept of Hate Poem is one that is easily identified. Hate. In the poem, it describes how much a person can hate another. Using different ways to communicate that hatred.






Thematic Concept In Slick:
The thematic statement in Slick is Hate and acceptance. Constantly through the book, Lisa describes the amount of hatred she has for Slick. It takes her almost a whole book to realize in the end that Slick is not such a bad guy after all. This shows that she hates him, but, in the end, accepts him for who he is as her most likely to become her father.


Common theme:
This common theme throughout the poem, Hate Poem, and the book, Slick, is Hatred. These two species of literature both show examples of extreme hate. However the Poem does not show anything to the extent of acceptance at the end, the Hate Poem ends with main character still talking about hate.

Combining the thematic concepts:
The thematic concepts of these two pieces are the same. As we see in the poem main character talks about. In the book Slick, on page 9 Liza says, "I absolutely completely truly hate him" referring to how much she hates Slick. This theme of hate is so important because it is also featured in the blurb on the back. Further emphasizing the theme of this book is hate. So I picked this poem due to the way the main character is expressing the different ways it hates another. I thought that it would really work well if Liza was saying this. If she had wrote this in a journal or if it had been a part of the book, it would really work well. The two pieces both deal with the theme of hate so that is why they work well with each other. If the poem had been about dreaming or another abstract noun, it would not have tied to the story as well. The poem ties into also because Liza has this deep seated hatred for Slick while the main character in the poem extremely hates the other person.


This is my review on the book Slick, By Sara Cassidy.

[Caitlin W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liza is a teenaged student who loves the environment and DIY projects, and whose parents recently got divorced. She and her two younger brothers still live with their mom, and their dad moved abroad and doesn't factor into the story very much. Liza's mom, an Eco-conscious and opinionated antique enthusiast, has started dating a man that Liza hates. She calls him Slick, because she thinks he's greasy and because he works for an oil company. When Liza's teacher shows her class a film on how oil companies are impacting life in Guatemala, Liza realizes that the company featured in the video is the very company that Slick works for, and she can't believe that her mother is compromising her ideals for a man. She decides to start a group of her classmates and friends to raise awareness of what the company is doing in Guatemala and how that could affect the planet, which affects everyone. The group is called Girls for Renewable Resources, Really!-- GRRR! Some of her male classmates make a sibling group for boys, named BRRR! They successfully raise awareness and make changes with their actions, and it is truly an inspiring tale for people who want to have an impact for a cause they care about. Liza even manages to earn Slick's grudging respect, though she is railing against his company, and toward the end of the book, she doesn't seem to hate him as much as she used to, either. Some sections of the story are told through e-mails sent among the characters, which makes for a pleasant change in pace. Recommended for grades 5-7.

[Zhen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liza, the protagonist, watched a video and knew that her mother's boyfriend is working at that company which is harming others. Then, she and her friend researched more on that company and discovered that its done many harm to the people in Guatemala. It is getting oil from the ground which can affect the environment. Many families and children have also been affected. People wants the company to pay them back but it never did. So Liza and her friends created a GRRR club( Girls for Renewable Resources Really). Their club have been protesting outside the company so they will pay up. It had been a success because the company finally paid the people back and stop what they were doing. The GRRR club continues to prevent other companies from harming others.

[S.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent example of why I enjoy many of the books from Orca Publishers. Liza is a teen-agers who finds herself competing with her Mother's boyfriend for Mom's attention. While she notices the changes in her Mother's style and conversations, Liza stays true to her dedication to ecology and feels compassion for the plight of others affected by the big oil companies. In the end, Liza discovers her leadership skills and the joy and camaraderie of volunteering for a good cause. She becomes an inspiration to others.

Orca has chosen to support authors who write about real issues that face young people and often shows the right path or the consequences for indiscretions.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was captured by Liza's passion for fairness- she became a real person to me, with all the wonderful quirks, and inspirations of someone from
such a free-spirited family.
Slick was a very inspiring read.

[BCPL Youth Services Librarian]

Click to see book in BCPL's online catalog

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol17... for a review!