Broken Soup is a children's novel by Jenny Valentine

Jenny Valentine

Jenny Valentine is a British children's novelist, best known for her award-winning novel Finding Violet Park.-Book history:Her first novel, Finding Violet Park, was published in 2007. It won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. The book's success caused...

, published in 2008.

It was shortlisted for the 2008 Waterstone's Children's Book Prize

Waterstone's Children's Book Prize

The Waterstone's Children's Book Prize is an annual award given to a work of children's literature published during the previous year. First awarded in 2005, the purpose of the prize is "to uncover hidden talent in children's writing" and is therefore open only to authors who have published no more...

 and the 2008 Costa Book Children's Book Award

Costa Book Awards

The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship....

, and longlisted for the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize

Booktrust Teenage Prize

The Booktrust Teenage Prize is an annual award given to young adult literature published in the UK. The prize is administered by Booktrust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading.-List of Prize Winners:...

. It has also been longlisted for the 2009 Manchester Book Award

Manchester Book Award

The Manchester Book Award is a project run in Manchester, UK, organised by School Services at the Manchester Library & Information Service; it is funded by the Working Neighbourhoods Fund. The project is currently in its fourth year....

 and nominated for the 2009 Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

.

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

described the book as "a gripping, humorous story". It was given two separate reviews by The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

: Nicolette Jones called it "a life-affirming, witty, romantic read", while Amanda Craig

Amanda Craig

Amanda Craig is a British novelist. Craig studied at Bedales School and Cambridge and works as a journalist. She is married with two children and lives in London....

 said that Rowan is "a heroine you warm to because of her perceptiveness and total lack of self-pity in a devastating situation." Eleanor Updale

Eleanor Updale

Eleanor Updale is the author of the Montmorency Series. She has written four novels and some short stories, and has won several awards for her writing.-Biography:...

, writing in The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, proclaimed it to be "one of this year's unmissable reads", adding that "the writing moves with an athletic spring."

About The Author

Jenny Valentine is a British children’s novelist. She was born in the United Kingdom and moved around every two years of her life to new houses. Growing up, she worked in a food shop for 15 years before going to Goldsmiths University to study English. Her husband, with whom she has two children, is a musical artist; he is a singer/song writer. They live in Hay on Wye, England (Harper Collins Publisher).

Abstract

As teenager, Rowan, copes with the death of her older brother, she takes on a lot responsibilities. After her father leaves, abandoning the family, and her mother slips into a depression, Rowan must take care of her little sister, Stroma, as well as the house. Through the pain of losing her older brother and through the stress of inheriting these new responsibilities, Rowan becomes closer to a classmate of hers and discovers just how little she knew about her older brother (Contemporary Authors Online, 2009). This new relationship with her classmate, Harper, begins when he hands Rowan a negative of a photograph that he claimed she had dropped. Although Rowan knows that the photo negative is not hers, she is too preoccupied with her troubled home life and takes it anyway without thinking it would lead her to a different life. Rowan also develops a relationship with a girl, Bee, who saw Harper hand Rowan the negative and questioned her about it (Jones, 2008). Bee’s relationship with Rowan is more complicated than the reader would originally guess. A plot twist reveals a few secrets about Bee involving Rowan’s dead brother, Jack, as they two work together to develop the negative and solve the mystery. Rowan finds out that Bee’s 2 year old brother is actually a child Bee had with Jack (Patti). Rowan begins to rely heavily on Bee and Harper when dealing with her rough home life, especially when her mom tries to commit suicide (Kirkus, 2009). The novel‘s theme, set my Jenny Valentine, is “developing”. The book follows Rowan as she develops new relationships and a new family (Kraus, 2009)

A Little About The Characters

Rowan, the main character, is presented as being very mature for her age. Dealing with so much grief, Rowan had no choice but to grow up and act older than just 15 years old. Rowan’s maturity is reflected in the text of the novel as the story unfolds, told through her voice. Her little sister, Stroma, is a ball of energy. She is dependent on Rowan and looks up to her greatly as a maternal figure in the absence of the care of their real mother. We learn about the late brother, Jack, when the characters reminisce about him. Harper is a mysterious, yet intriguing character. He befriends Rowan and acts as her “boyfriend” through all of her turmoil. His role as the love interest suites him well. Bee is much like Rowan; she was forced to grow up when she became a teenage mother. She is mature and has the same curious intuition that Rowan possesses (Sara).