Catalyst
From AwardAnnals
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| Author(s) | Laurie Halse Anderson |
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| Publisher | Viking Children's Books |
| Honors | |
| Meet Kate Malone-straight A science and math geek, minister’s daughter, ace long-distance runner, girlfriend, unwilling family caretaker, emotional avoidance champion. Kate manages her life by organizing it, as logically as the periodic table. She can handle it all-or so she thinks. Then, like a string of chemical reactions, everything happens: the Malones’ neighbors get burned out of their home and move in. Because her father is a Good Man of God (and a Not Very Thoughtful Parent), Kate has to share her room with her nemesis, Teri Litch, and Teri’s adorable,… | |
Meet Kate Malone-straight A science and math geek, minister’s daughter, ace long-distance runner, girlfriend, unwilling family caretaker, emotional avoidance champion. Kate manages her life by organizing it, as logically as the periodic table. She can handle it all-or so she thinks. Then, like a string of chemical reactions, everything happens: the Malones’ neighbors get burned out of their home and move in. Because her father is a Good Man of God (and a Not Very Thoughtful Parent), Kate has to share her room with her nemesis, Teri Litch, and Teri’s adorable, troublemaking little brother. And through it all, she’s still waiting to hear from the only college she has applied to: MIT. Kate’s life is less and less under control-and then, something happens that blows it all apart, and forces her to examine her life, self, and heart for the first time. Set in the same community as the remarkable Speak, Catalyst is a novel that will make you think, laugh, cry, and rejoice-sometimes at the same time.
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
Chemistry honors student and cross-country runner Kate Malone is driven. Daughter of a father who is a reverend first and a parent second (“Rev. Dad [Version 4.7] is a faulty operating system, incompatible with my software.”) and a dead mother she tries not to remember, Kate has one goal: To escape them both by gaining entrance to her own holy temple, MIT. Eschewing sleep, she runs endlessly every night waiting for the sacred college acceptance letter. Then two disasters occur: Sullen classmate Teri and her younger brother, Mikey, take over Kate’s room when their own house burns down, and a too-thin letter comes from MIT, signifying denial. And so the experiment begins. Can crude Teri and sweet Mikey, combined with the rejection letter, form the catalyst that will shake Kate out of her selfish tunnel vision and force her to deal with the suppressed pain of her mom’s death? “If I could run all the time, life would be fine. As long as I keep moving, I’m in control.” But for Kate, it’s time to stop running and face the feelings she’s spent her whole life racing away from.
Catalyst, Laurie Halse Anderson’s third novel for teens, is a deftly fashioned character study of a seldom explored subject in YA fiction: the type-A adolescent. Teens will identify (if not exactly sympathize) with prickly Kate instantly, and be shocked or perhaps secretly pleased to discover that life is no easier for the honor roll student than it is for the outcast. Anderson earns an A plus for this revealing and realistic take on life, death, and GPAs. (Ages 12 and older) —Jennifer Hubert
Barnes and Noble
Laurie Halse Anderson, the novelist who penned the New York Times bestseller Speak and Fever 1793, grips us again with this solid, piercing book about a high school senior looking toward her future and the dramatic events that ground her to the present.
Kate Malone has only one focus—getting into MIT. She’s a chemistry whiz at school, and her heart is set on being accepted into the college of her dreams, but unfortunately, it’s the only school she’s applied for. When her minister dad comes to school to deliver “the letter,” however, MIT’s rejection is the spark that throws Kate’s world into a tailspin. For starters, Teri Litch—the school’s senior tough-girl—her mom, and her brother all wind up living at Kate’s house after their house burns down. Teri has a tendency to swipe Kate’s belongings, do only what she likes, and act like she’s entitled to the run of the house. Kate begins to break through Teri’s hard exterior over a house-rebuilding bonding moment, though, but when a horrendous and sudden turn of events brings their world to a standstill, the two oppositely charged girls must come together, finding a common understanding and taking stock of what’s truly important.
If you liked Speak, you’ll be completely enthralled with this powerful tour de force that’s just as tense and gut-wrenching. The book’s two main energies—Kate and Teri—interact with each other with prickly nervous uncertainty and frustration, and readers will pay thoughtful attention to the differences between these two characters’ life-changing catalysts. A remarkable work for older teens that will sink deeply into their minds—and which even includes a cameo appearance by Melinda from Speak—Catalyst has the riveting formula to be another hit. —Shana Taylor
