''Broken Soup'' is a 2008 children's novel by

Jenny Valentine Jenny Valentine (born 1970) is an English children's novelist. For her first novel and best-known work, ''Finding Violet Park'' (HarperCollins, 2007), she won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged b ...

. It was shortlisted for the 2008

Waterstones Children's Book Prize The Waterstones 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 there ...

and the 2008 Costa Book Children's Book Award, and longlisted for the 2008

Booktrust Teenage Prize The Booktrust Teenage Prize was an annual award given to young adult literature published in the UK. The prize was administered by Book Trust, an independent charity which promotes books and reading. The Booktrust Teenage Prize was last awarded in ...

. It has also been longlisted for the 2009

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. Each year, ...

and nominated for the 2009 Carnegie Medal. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

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

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

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

Amanda Craig Amanda Craig (born 1959) is a British novelist, critic and journalist. She was a recipient of the Catherine Pakenham Award. Early life Born in South Africa, Craig grew up in Italy before moving to London. Her parents were British journalist, ...

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 (born 1953) is an English fiction writer, best known for the Victorian-era London thriller '' Montmorency'' (2003) and its sequels, the Montmorency series, which feature the namesake fictional character, Montmorency. Personal l ...

, writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

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

Plot

Rowan copes with the death of her older brother and 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 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 by Jenny Valentine, is "developing". The book follows Rowan as she develops new relationships and a new family (Kraus, 2009)

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 suits him well. Bee, whom Rowan also quickly befriends, 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.

References

{{reflist *"Jenny Valentine." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 20 February 2011. *Jones, Nicolette (27 January 2008). "Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine". London: The Times. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/children/article3239226.ece. Retrieved 6 January 2009. *Patti. Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine. Retrieved 20 February 2011, from http://oopswrongcookie.blogspot.com/ *Sara. Review: Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine. Retrieved 19 February 2011, from http://thehidingspot.blogspot.com/ *Kraus, Daniel. "Broken Soup." Booklist 15 February 2009: 71. Literature Resource Center. Web. 20 February 2011. *"Valentine, Jenny: BROKEN SOUP." Kirkus Reviews 15 April 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web.19 Feb 2011. *"Jenny Valentine." Harper Collins Publishers. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 February 2011, from https://web.archive.org/web/20121022043254/http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/30077/Jenny_Valentine/index.aspx. British children's novels 2008 British novels 2008 children's books HarperCollins books