Review of “Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree,” by Lauren Tarshis
“Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree,” by Lauren Tarshis is a touching story about an intelligent young girl who decides to start helping her schoolmates by solving their social problems.
Emma-Jean is an unusual girl known for being highly logical. This sets her apart from her fellow schoolmates because she usually doesn’t understand their jokes and queer social customs. Emma-Jean spends her time alone, studying trees, the Hindi language, and other important subjects.
But everything changes one day when Emma-Jean walks into the girl’s bathroom and finds one of her classmates crying. Colleen is a sensitive girl who is very kind and outgoing. But some of the other students are cruel to her. The worst offender is Laura, the leader of a group of popular seventh-grade girls.
Laura has been muscling her way into Colleen’s relationship with Kaitlin, her best friend. Now Laura has gotten Kaitlin to invite her to an annual ski party that is usually a yearly vacation that Kaitlin and Colleen enjoy together. Laura uses her conniving, bossy manner and strong support from the popular girls to get what she wants, even if it isn’t necessarily what Colleen and Kaitlin want.
To Emma-Jean these social dynamics are ridiculous and mysterious, but she has a caring heart and a desire to help Colleen. Emma-Jean comforts Colleen with kind, logical assurance that Kaitlin was obviously pressured into inviting Laura rather than Colleen. To Emma-Jean it is just solid reasoning and simple logic, but to Colleen it is just the kind of support she needs.
Emma-Jean wants to do more though. “You can be confident that your problem will be resolved,” she says as Colleen leaves the girl’s bathroom and returns to the hectic, tangled social life of middle school.
Colleen doesn’t believe Emma, but that’s because she doesn’t know that Emma-Jean has a plan. Using her logic and careful planning Emma-Jean can manipulate anyone in the school and solve any of the student’s social problems. There is only one problem. What will the side effects be?
Emma-Jean doesn’t really care as long as she can help Colleen.
I was highly impressed by Lauren Tarshis and her debut novel “Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree.” Personally I could relate to Emma-Jean very closely as my own personality is quite a bit similar to hers. Emma-Jean is a sensitive individual, very perceptive and caring, but she tends to look at the facts more than the emotions.
Emma-Jean’s feelings and personality are expressed through her solid, precise dialogue. Lauren Tashis did an excellent job of switching back and forth between the various voices of the story. From Emma-Jean’s solid, factual voice to Colleen’s emotional, fretting feelings to Lauren’s cruel, bullying attitude, each character has a distinct personality.
The portrayal of social dynamics in “Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree” is simply stunning. By switching back and forth from Colleen’s point of view to Emma-Jeans readers appreciate the story from two viewpoints: Emma-Jean’s cool, deliberate analysis of social situations whatever the consequences, and Colleen’s constant worry about what other people will think about her.
I felt quite satisfied after reading “Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree.” It is a wonderful, heart warming book that left me with a pleasant feeling inside. I recommend it without hesitation to all young readers.
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