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Summary
Summary
"Fig Arnold is an original and irresistible heroine in a story full of hope, art, and love." --R. J. Palacio, author of Wonder
"A thoughtful portrayal of mental illness with queer content that avoids coming-out clichés." -- Kirkus Reviews
For Fig's dad, hurricane season brings the music.
For Fig, hurricane season brings the possibility of disaster.
Fig, a sixth grader, loves her dad and the home they share in a beachside town. She does not love the long months of hurricane season. Her father, a once-renowned piano player, sometimes goes looking for the music in the middle of a storm. Hurricane months bring unpredictable good and bad days. More than anything, Fig wants to see the world through her father's eyes, so she takes an art class to experience life as an artist does. Then Fig's dad shows up at school, confused and looking for her. Not only does the class not bring Fig closer to understanding him, it brings social services to their door.
As the walls start to fall around her, Fig is sure it's up to her alone to solve her father's problems and protect her family's privacy. But with the help of her best friend, a cute girl at the library, and a surprisingly kind new neighbor, Fig learns she isn't as alone as she once thought . . . and begins to compose her own definition of family.
Nicole Melleby's Hurricane Season is a radiant and tender novel about taking risks and facing danger, about friendship and art, and about growing up and coming out. And more than anything else, it is a story about love--both its limits and its incredible healing power.
Author Notes
Nicole Melleby , a New Jersey native, is the author of highly praised middle-grade books, including the Lambda Literary finalist Hurricane Season , ALA Notable book How to Become a Planet , Camp QUILTBAG (co-written with A. J. Sass), and The House on Sunrise Lagoon series. She's also the author of Sunny and Oswaldo , her debut picture book. She lives with her wife and their cats, whose need for attention oddly aligns with Nicole's writing schedule. Visit her online at nicolemelleby.com.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In coastal New Jersey, 11-year-old Fig and her father have been on their own since her mother abandoned them following Fig's birth. Fig's father, a once-successful pianist and composer with undiagnosed bipolar disorder, has good days and bad; when he interrupts the girl's class with a desperate plea to see her, her teacher grows concerned and calls child services. Afraid of being taken from her father and intensely private about his struggles, Fig must enlist the help of their new neighbor Mark when her dad wanders off in the middle of a hurricane-not for the first time. Hoping to better understand her father, STEM-inclined Fig starts a project about Vincent van Gogh and becomes drawn to similarities between her family and his. Mark's steadfast presence and growing relationship with her dad first infuriates Fig, then allows her to relinquish her fierce protection of her father; as hurricane season advances, she becomes less anxious and more comfortable in her life. Melleby's debut offers a tender, earnest portrait of a daughter searching for constancy while negotiating her father's sickness and the social challenges of tween girlhood, including her first crush on a girl. Ages 9-12. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Sixth-grader Figs single father, a once-renowned composer who has bipolar disorder, behaves erratically (bursting into her classroom in a panic; needing rescue by police when he wades into the ocean during a hurricane), with periods of depression in between his manic episodes. Newly regular visits from New Jerseys Child Protection and Permanency agency mean that Fig feels obliged to downplay the disorders effects on their household so she and her dad can stay together. Neighbor Marks help in an emergency quickly turns into a romantic relationship with Dad, a development shown through Figs close observations of their interactions, particularly in a memorable scene in which Mark shaves Dads face when his hands are too shaky to do it himself. Mellebys debut novel includes two coming-out storiesFig has a crush on an older girlbut integrates these elements naturally into its main story of the father-daughter relationship, as each struggles with how much to share with the other and when. Details involving art and science (STEM-oriented Fig tries to relate to her musician father and draws connections between his condition and Vincent van Goghs) lend specificity and keep the plotlines centering on LGBTQ+ identities and bipolar disorder from feeling overly formulaic. shoshana flax (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Fig knows her teacher meant well by calling Child Protective Services the day Fig's father pulled her out of class, but all it did was make everything worse. It's been just the two of them since Fig was born, and she knows how to deal with his wild mood swings, but can she convince a caseworker that things are okay? Fig adds their CPS appointment to the calendar, where she counts down the days until hurricane season is over, because her father, a once-famous composer, is drawn to the music of storms, and not even Fig can reach him when they lure him down to the beach. In an effort to better understand him, she pours herself into an art project on Vincent van Gogh, finding parallels between her father's genius and erratic behavior and the painter's. Melleby's debut examines the complexities of having a parent with a mental illness and the responsibilities that kids sometimes must shoulder. Themes of trust and LGBTQ romance are incorporated into this weighty but hopeful story.--Julia Smith Copyright 2019 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-7-Eleven-year-old Fig craves normalcy. But with a hurricane approaching, both literally and figuratively, Fig will have to navigate her way to calmer waters. She lives with her father, a once-renowned pianist, who now suffers from dramatic mood swings that make it impossible for him to work or for his daughter to connect with him. Although she is more comfortable in the science arena, Fig enrolls in an art class hoping it will shed some light on the way her brilliant but troubled father's mind works. Through the class, Fig meets three people who guide her to a deeper understanding of herself: a supportive art teacher, a boy who genuinely wants to be Fig's friend, and Hannah, a high school student on whom Fig develops a crush. It is Fig's introduction to the works of Vincent van Gogh, though, that inspires her to learn more about mental illness. She and her father also have the support of their new neighbor, Mark, who becomes a steady and calming presence in both of their lives. As a hurricane approaches their New Jersey beach community, Fig begins to rely on the support of friends-and her own newfound strength-to bring music back into their lives. VERDICT Fig's story will engage middle grade readers who enjoy thoughtful novels that address complex topics. It may even inspire them to seek out the works of van Gogh.-Shelley Sommer, Inly School, Scituate, MA © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A father and daughter learn to take care of each other.It's always just been Fig and her dad. He's a little difficult sometimes, but that doesn't mean her art teacher, Miss Williams, needed to call social services on him. Now she has three months to get him on track before the social workers come back to check on them. They love each other, but they don't totally understand each otherFig's dad is a formerly successful pianist and composer with unmanaged bipolar disorderso Fig has decided to do a project on Vincent van Gogh for art class. Maybe if she studies an artist, she can understand her father's mind. But before long it's their new neighbor, Mark, who understands her father, and Fig feels left on her own. She must figure out what to do before social services returns; how to manage her male best friend's crush on her and her crush on someone elsea girl; and how to react when her father and Mark fall in love. The parallels drawn between van Gogh and his brother and Fig and her father are meaningful and come from Fig, so they don't feel contrived. Melleby doesn't shy away from how terrifying it is to watch someone in a dangerously manic state, but the narrative never tips into melodrama.A thoughtful portrayal of mental illness with queer content that avoids coming-out clichs. (Fiction. 9-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
