The Woefield Poultry Collective by Susan Juby

Woefield Farm is a sprawling thirty acres of scrub land, complete with dilapidated buildings and one half-sheared, lonely sheep named Bertie. It’s “run”—in the loosest possible sense of the word—by Prudence Burns, an energetic, well-intentioned twenty-something New Yorker full of back-to- the-land ideals, but without an iota of related skills or experience. Prudence, who inherited the farm from her uncle, soon discovers that the bank is about to foreclose on Woefield Farm, which means that Prudence has to turn things around, fast. But fear not! She’ll be assisted by Earl, a spry seventy-something, banjo-playing foreman with a distrust of newfangled ideas and a substantial family secret; Seth, the alcoholic, celebrity-blogging boy-next-door, who hasn’t left the house since a scandal with his high-school drama teacher; and Sara Spratt, a highly organized eleven-year-old looking for a home for her prizewinning chickens, including one particularly randy fellow soon to be christened Alec Baldwin.

Full of offbeat charm and characters you won’t soon forget, The Woefield Poultry Collective is a heartwarming novel about learning how to take on a challenge, facing your fears, and finding friendship in the most unlikely of places. With alternating narratives, Susan Juby shows how a team of misfits can find acceptance and success, even with—and sometimes in spite of—their highly unorthodox approach.

Back in 2008 I received a boxed set of ARCs from Harpercollins. I had requested Jolted by Arthur Slade, but they sent a few other books along with it. I read and loved Jolted, so then I knew I had to see what other treasures were included. One of the books was Getting the Girl by Susan Juby. I even said in my review that I was surprised to like the book because back then I was just starting to accept that I might like young adult books. I always wasn't sure about the description, but Juby wrote a great book and really surprised me. I have always meant to read something else by her, but have accomplished it yet. Getting the Girl reminded me of what it was like to be in high school, but Juby did it with humour and the necessary seriousness.

Fast forward to 2011. Harper Collins Canada sends me an email asking if I want to be included in a blog tour for The Woefield Poultry Collective. This time it is an adult novel. Her first one, actually. It was like a return to 2008. The book arrived in the mail and I really looked at the cover. I was not impressed. Then, I opened to the first couple chapters and was really starting to think that this is not the book for me. I was wrong. Once again Juby won me over and I wound up enjoying the book. It has a great cast of characters, she writes with tongue-in-cheek humour, and it was basically a book about dreams. There were a lot of moments in this book that while the circumstances were different, I could relate to the overall feelings of the book.

The book chapters flip around so that different people are telling the story. That can be bothersome, but I think Juby pulled it off well. She also meets my pet peeve requirements. It really bothers me when young adult authors write adult books, but they are really not that different in writing. This book was more mature and written for an 'older' audience, so she passed the test that I was most worried about. Overall, a good book.

Thanks to Harper Collins Canada for including me in this tour!

Getting the Girl by Susan Juby

Sunglasses. Check.
Binoculars. Check.
Notepad. Check.
Mom's pink bike. Check. Check?

Meet Sherman Mack. Short. Nerdy. Amateur P.I. and prepared to do
anything for Dini Trioli.

Nobody knows who began it or when it became a tradition, but every girl
at Harewood Tech fears being D-listed, a ritual that wipes her off the social
map forever. When Sherman believes Dini is in danger of being D-listed, he
snatches up his surveillance gear and launches a full-scale investigation to
uncover who is responsible.

Could it be the captain of the lacrosse team?

The hottest girls in school, the Trophy Wives?

Or maybe their boyfriends?

One thing is for sure: Sherman Mack is on the case. And he's not giving
up.

Part comedy, part mystery, and with all of Juby's trademark
tongue-in-cheek humor, Getting the Girl takes on one of the cruelest aspects of
high school: how easy it is for an entire school to turn on someone, and how
hard it can be to be the only one willing to fight back.

I am actually surprised that I liked this book. When I read the description, I wasn't sure if it was my thing. It came with Jolted, though, so I thought I would give it a try! It was actually a pretty funny book, but at the same time very serious. It got me thinking about high school and how tough being in high school could be. At my school there was this hallway and everyone called it Jock Hall because it ran along the gym. Anyway, all the 'popular' people used to stand along this hallway and stare, or other days, they would call remarks or do other things that could be intimidating to others. Anyway, this lead to a lot of problems. I know that some of my friends wouldn't even walk down that hallway, they would find alternate routes. It is sort of related to the fact that I wasn't too keen on being intimidated, so I didn't really care all that much... They stopped bothering me; my friends were so embarassed they didn't walk down that hallway. This is the worst-case high school story that was running around in my head while I read this book.

In this book, girls were singled out and they were defiled. This meant that they were essentially invisible passed the first day. That first day, though, they would be bullied and ridiculed. A few of those scenes were shown in the book and it was very depressing what these girls had to go through. It is a very eye-opening book about just what it is like to be a teenager! In such turbulant times, it is a fitting subject, really. Susan Juby covers it with wit and humour, but she also shows the dark side of bullying and intimitation. It was a pretty good read.

It was an ARC of the book, and there was a funny typo that I hope they noticed before it went to printing! Sherman was a likeable character and it was nice to see him stand up for these defiled girls. Although, the path there was rather interesting, to say the least! He doesn't see the borders of the school quite like it was 'supposed' to and finds himself friends with lots of different crowds. Maybe if a few more teens read it they will find the power to stand up for themselves like Sherman did for the girls at his school. It's worth a try, anyway.

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Thanks Harper Collins!