Trash
by Sharon Darrow
TRASH by Sharon Darrow
Category: Contemporary
Age Recommendation: Grades 9+
Release Date: 8/8/06
Publisher: Candlewick
Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce
Rating: 4 Stars
TRASH is a verse novel that continues the story of Boy and Sissy Lexie, first introduced in Sharon Darrow’s novel THE
PAINTERS OF LEXIEVILLE. It’s certainly not necessary to have read that first book (I haven’t)--but I’m planning on it
now that I’ve read this one. The best part of this book, I think, is the characters, and I’d love to read more about them.
Sure, the story is interesting, too: Boy and Sissy are teenagers now. They’ve been shipped around to various foster homes
in a way that makes them feel like trash, especially since their mother discarded them like it. Now they’re living with the
town trash collectors, a placement that seems especially fit using that comparison. It’ll never be home.
Boy says that home is where their big sister Raynell is, and Sissy thinks it’s the truth. So what do they do? They run away
and go to find her. They think she’s in Little Rock, but it turns out that she moved to St. Louis and their foster parents didn’t
deliver the message. They don’t know how to find her, so they start saving their money, and when they have enough, they
go to St. Louis and search her out.
In St. Louis, they have a family with Raynell, her husband, Jobe, and their baby, Kylie. They also have new friends: Dolores
and Tyrone. The four of them run around the city at night, climbing, jumping, and painting. They take new names with which
to sign their graffiti: Boy and Sissy, who have always wanted real names, are now Atenz and Skye.
And then something unthinkable happens. Something terrible: Boy doesn’t look where he’s jumping, and in that split second
of not looking, things change forever. Sissy’s life will never, ever be the same.
Both the story and characters in TRASH are interesting. This is a story well worth reading.
