The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay
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Amy Joslyn, Fairport Public Library, NY -- School Library Journal, 9/26/2008
The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay (unabr.). 3 CDs. 3:41 hrs. Prod. by Listening Library. Dist by Listening Library/Books on Tape (library.booksontape.com). 2008. ISBN 978-0-7393-6322-5. $38.
Gr 7 Up–Seventeen-year-old Aussie Rachel Hill is a straight “A” student, reliable, organized, and in control of her life...until Nick McGowan comes to stay. Cool, rebellious Nick is suspended from school for setting off the fire alarms in the boy’s boardinghouse. When Rachel’s Dad invites him to stay at their house, the teenager is mortified. What if Nick walks into the kitchen and catches her with bad morning hair or even worse…a freshly developed zit. What does develop between Rachel and Nick is an unlikely friendship, and both of them discover something about themselves and each other that makes this an incredibly amusing, yet surprisingly heartwarming story. Told in the first person, Rebecca Sparrow’s novel (Knopf, 2008) captures the emotional angst of these teenagers, while Tamara Lovatt-Smith’s narration skillfully brings Rachel to life, giving her a slightly inflated edge of anguish combined with a gentle dose of sincerity. This humorous and poignant novel is an essential purchase for school and public library collections.
