• Lou Taylor Pucci …. Justin Cobb
• Tilda Swinton …. Audrey Cobb
• Vincent D’Onofrio …. Mike Cobb
• Vince Vaughn …. Mr. Geary
• Keanu Reeves …. Perry Lyman

I’m not sure exactly how to review this film. I enjoyed it while watching, it is humourous and fun, but it is also a bit odd, and by giving away details I may ruin your enjoyment.

The film revolves around the Cobb family^[1] Justin in particular. He is the thumbsucker of the title, and because he a teenage there are quite a few people who would like him to take his thumb out of his mouth for good.

I suppose it is a coming of age film, although we don’t really get any solutions, that is the point. There are no real answers to life, we just live. Doesn’t mean we have to stop asking, just that we are never going to come up with one definitive answer.

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ISBN: 0241139295

Set in Samoa where we once belonged is the coming of age story of Alofa, a 13 year old girl growing up in the village of Malaefou. I wrote my final year English essay on this, and Perception of Polynesia in literature, so you’d think I would have remembered it. Well, most parts I did, but there were some I didn’t.

Alofa is our narrator, we see life through her eyes. But there are also songs and poems blended in, a mix of Samoan myth and legend. Allowing us a glimpse into life for Samoa. A life where

‘I’ does not exist. I am not. My self belongs not to me because ‘I’ is always ‘we’, is a part of the ‘aiga … a part of the nu’u, a part of Samoa

Alofa’s story reveals that the easy-going tropical paradise much loved in Western stereotypes does not exist. Instead we see violence and ignorance as well as love and beauty. where we once belonged is a great read.

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Author: S.E. Hinton
ISBN: 0006722253
I decided to reread this after hearing that the film has been recut and rereleased.

The Outsiders is one of those classic YA books. Although I never read it at school I think it might be on one of the optional reading lists.

The story revolves around Ponyboy, he tells the story, the first person narrator so everything is through his eyes. The eyes of a greaser. Greasers are lower-class Oklahoma youths, so called because of their pride in their long greasy hair. Their natural enemies are the Socs, or upper-class, wealthy Socials.

Ponyboy is the youngest of three brothers, and as his parents died a few years earlier there are tensions between him and his oldest brother, Darry, who has been forced to give up college and work to support the family.

Written when Hinton was only 17 there are certain elements that stand out as slightly immature, although you could say that is because it is Ponyboy telling the story. And he is far from mature, he is only 14 after all.

I read this ages ago, and it remains a very readable book, despite the fact that I can see many more flaws in it this time round. Still the story is enjoyable and while some characters may lack a certain depth, they have enough to keep you interested.

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author: Christine Dwyer Hickey

I really liked this book. The writing was simple and straight-forward but wonderful. Dwyer Hickey makes Tatty, the character, come alive, and gives her a voice of her
own. A voice that is childlike, but also one that hints at the damage beneath her youth.

The book tells the story of Tatty’s dysfunctional family, her indifferent and occasionally violent parents, both with drink problems.

And that is what makes this a hard book to summarise and review. The narration is slightly strange, almost first person from Tatty’s perspective, but not quite an “I” narrator. It almost reminded me of Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides, but that book left me cold and I didn’t finish it, where as this one pulls you in to the story and into Tatty’s life.

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