i.d Stuff That Happens To Define Us Review

TITLE: i.d Stuff That Happens To Define Us
AUTHOR: Kate Scowen
ILLUSTRATOR: Peter Mitchell
PAGES: 160
PUBLISHER: Annick Press
PUB DATE: February 2010

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Some things can change you forever.

Everyone remembers
that first love. Or the first all-out fight with a parent or sibling; the
feeling of being let down by someone you love; losing something or someone that
matters to you; struggling to fit in. I.D. collects 12 first-person accounts
about life’s pivotal moments and offers each as an incisive graphic narrative.
With raw honesty, and illuminated by Peter Mitchell’s bold, gritty illustration
style, these true stories tackle the universal experiences from childhood and
adolescence that stay with us forever. Each anecdote, and accompanying
reflection, reveals how individual identity can be shaped by common themes of
growing up. By turns thoughtful, painful, funny and fierce, I.D. powerfully
demonstrates that what happens to define us in youth doesn’t have to confine us
forever.

MY THOUGHTS:

Kate Scowen is the other of two other books called: My Crazy Life and My Kind of Sad. I have never read her precious books but I am thinking that I just might look for them.

i.d Stuff That Happens To Define Us is a book that contains 12 first person accounts about things that happen in our lives growing up from childhood to adolescence.

Of all the 12 stories the one that hit home for me were Broken Hearted. We all remember our first loves and Broken Hearted is about that. Its about a boy who is 16 years old and basically has no luck with the girls. His luck changes when he meets a girl from another school at a dance. He meets a girl and falls in love. The are having a good time for two months and they go to the prom together. She leaves her purse in the car and he goes to return it only to discover his girlfriend making out with another guy. Needless to say you know where this goes.

For me it didn’t happen like that or maybe it did and I didn’t know. I have to clarify that, for me I met this guy and he was visiting from another province and staying at his grandparents for the summer. For me it was “love” and I was heart broken when he had to return home at the end of the summer. Thankfully with the technology that is available today I have been able to reconnect with him and we are the best of friends so 20 years later. Who would have thought?

What I loved about the book was the fact that the illustrator, Peter Mitchell added illustrations to accompany the book and they all suited the story perfectly. Kate also included a resource section with Hotline numbers for both Canada and the US, books and websites links for kids who are in need of advise or help.

I want to thank Annick Press for sending me i.d Stuff That Happens to Define Us to read and review.