Heart on My Sleeve ANNOTATION
From the end of high school to the beginning of college, Chloe and Julian deal with major changes in their families and friendships and explore their feelings for each other through emails, letters, and a visit.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
While on a college visit, Chloe meets Julian, another prospective freshman, and infatuated, the two high-school seniors begin a long-distance relationship. Chloe is thrilled that she'll have a boyfriend at college, although she doesn't know how to break the news to Eli, her best friend who she's sort of dating. As Chloe and Julian prepare to meet again, they must face the question of whether their relationship is based on who they really are or who they imagine each other to be.
Told entirely through written correspondence, including e-mails, instant messages, letters, and postcards, this funny, smart, and touching novel is innovative in its structure and its visually interesting design. Ellen Wittlinger explores issues of communication and relationships as only she can, with humor, poignancy, and sincerity.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Wittlinger's (Hard Love) ambitious novel opens just after artistic Chloe and Julian become smitten with each other during a college preview weekend. Readers learn about their lives and interests through e-mails, instant messages, postcards and letters-Chloe even sends Julian a mix CD-and the two plan to meet again towards the end of summer (when Julian hopes to be a finalist in Boston for a vocal competition). But complications arise; Julian sends roses that arrive as Chloe and her boyfriend pose for prom pictures at her house, causing their breakup, and when she goes away to be a counselor at an arts camp, she hooks up with a coworker. As their rendezvous approaches, Chloe nervously writes that she'll "be the one who's bitten her fingernails down to the knuckles." The author builds upon an enticing premise-the "strange changes that seem to keep happening during the weird summer between high school and college"-but more remarkably she breathes life into so many characters through their letters. Family and friends also write to the protagonists and each other, sharing their own problems and offering advice. Chloe and Julian's fate may be fairly obvious, and Chloe's mother's confession about her marriage's troubled past seems forced, but most readers will applaud the author for imagining-and maintaining-such a complete world. Ages 12-up. (July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Children's Literature - Zeta Shearill
Chloe is a high school senior who cannot believe her luck when she meets Julian at a college visit. The two immediately fall for each other and begin a long distance romance. The biggest problem is Chloe's boyfriend, Eli, who has no idea that Chloe wants to break up with him! Things come to a head when an unknowing Julian sends flowers to Chloe just as she is leaving for the prom. The aftermath shakes her world. Eli is heartbroken at this betrayal, her prom is ruined, and even her best friend stops talking to her. Forced to break up with Eli, Chloe wonders if she did the right thing. As she and Julian prepare to meet again, Chloe must decide if what they shared that weekend was real. In addition to her complicated love life, Chloe's sister Genevieve reveals a secret that completely throws Chloe for a loop. As her world turns chaotic, Chloe must sort through it all and figure out what it is she truly desires. Told entirely through letters, emails, Instant Messages, and postcards, this innovative novel is a pleasure to read. Wittlinger is extremely clever in how she structures this story, delivering a tale that is warm hearted and funny. 2004, Simon and Schuster, Ages 12 up.
School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up-This epistolary novel combines e-mails, instant messages, "old-fashioned" pen-and-paper letters, and postcards to tell a story that is familiar to many teens poised between the friendships and romances of high school and the promise of new social possibilities in college. Seniors Chloe, of Massachusetts, and Julian, from Florida, meet and create sparks with one another during a visit to the college each plans to attend. Back home, they cope with how to treat current or potential love interests, best friends, parents, and sisters who have their own baggage. The two teens fan the flames of their mutual attraction through regular correspondence, not only with one another, but also with their recently independent older siblings. Wittlinger handles all of these relationships credibly and engagingly. While the parents seem to be close to moronic-especially in Chloe's case-all of the involved young people, as well as more minor characters, are individuated and realistic. Subplots include Chloe's sister's gay identity, the uncertainties inherent in beginning college and learning to create one's identity anew, and class differences, which are gracefully and authentically depicted. While the novel's structure sometimes seems artificial-all of the characters are articulate and concise writers-the story is meaty and offers a variety of access points. The title is apt, describing a state known to many if not most older teens.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
This modern epistolary tale (emails and IMs joining handwritten letters and postcards) is voyeuristically enjoyable. As senior year draws to a close, Chloe visits a college and meets Julian there. The two immediately bond and begin dating (sort of) long-distance. In Massachusetts, Chloe wrestles with how this affects her relationship with friend-since-kindergarten Eli; in Florida, Julian resists being set up with adoring Nina. When Julian's older sister suddenly gets married and Chloe comes out of the closet, sibling and parent relationships enter the picture. The parents are less believable throughout than the kids (ages 18-22). Chloe and Julian become so smitten over the summer that when he comes to Boston in August for a singing scholarship competition, they're shocked and resentful to discover that they don't know each other all that well. A successful use of multiple viewpoints and an interesting exploration of the implied intimacy of various forms of non-verbal communication. (Fiction. 11-14)
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