The year is 1993, and Maggie Lynch's life is about to flip upside-down.
Maggie's mother has fallen in love again, this time with an Irishman. Their marriage will uproot the entire family from their home in Chicago and send them across the world to the small coastal town of Bray, Ireland. Maggie is forced to leave behind most everything she holds dear, including her grandmother and uncle. Lonely and isolated, Maggie tries desperately to make friends, but quickly finds that the novelty of being an American in Ireland is short-lived.
On top of being homesick, Maggie especially misses her Uncle Kevin, a 26-year-old grunge-rock guitarist who was always quick to expose Maggie to new music and take her to seminal rock concerts. If it weren't for the care packages of music magazines and candy that Kevin sends, Maggie would go totally crazy.
Bit by bit, however, the people of Bray start to grow on Maggie. She meets a boy with whom she feels instant chemistry - a feeling totally foreign to her. As their relationship builds, a sudden death in the family threatens to tear Maggie's world apart. A parting gift to Maggie bestows upon her two tickets to see Nirvana play in Rome. It's guaranteed to be the concert of a lifetime. Unfortunately, there's no way Maggie's mother and stepfather would allow her to go, so Maggie takes matters into her own hands and embarks on what might possibly be the most rock-and-roll pilgrimage ever.
"The Carnival at Bray," by Jessie Ann Foley, is a pitch-perfect coming-of-age story that is ideal for both teens and adults. For those who grew up in the 1990s, this will be a trip down memory lane. The grunge music scene of the early '90s dovetails nicely with the disenchantment and rebelliousness of adolescence experienced by Maggie. The plot unfolds in a deliberate fashion, but never feels slow or ponderous. The writing and characterization are exceptional - even the most minor characters are multidimensional.
Maggie, of course, is the heart of the story. Even when her decisions make the reader cringe, her motivations are always understandable. In the end, readers will be celebrating her triumphs and mourning her losses right along with her. This delightful read was an Honor Book for both the Morris Award (ALA's award for young adult debut books) and the Michael L. Printz Award (ALA's award for literary excellence in young adult literature).
Courtney Waters is the teen services coordinator at Missouri River Regional Library.