Edna in the Desert

Picture a place in the middle of the desert. A place in which there are no other buildings around. No restaurants. No stores near by. No wireless service. No Internet. No life, at least according to Edna. This where she will spend her entire summer. Her grandmother, an unfriendly old woman with her hands on her hips like a five-star general. Her creased, emotionless face emerged in the sun would be her only human contact besides her grandfather who sat perpetually on the porch in his rocking chair until it was time for bed.

When Edna's parents are finally at wits end on what to do with her combativeness in both high school as well as trying to raise her in their household, they agree that spending the summer with her grandparents in Desert Palms might be the only thing that will work. The more they punish her the more disrespectful she becomes. But Edna doesn't consider Desert Palms a town, more like "coordinates on a map. After her latest incident at school involving socks, her father finally had had enough. Both of her parents had undertaken a military-like approach to this maneuver, and they were not turning back despite what she promises to do.

This would be the final straw. Her parents refused to consider medication and there was increasing pressure from the therapist to send her to a psychiatrist. It was time to do something radical. It seems she was always looking to prove herself to people and she simply didn't have respect for anyone.

"Edna, you have no respect for others. It can't go on, and it's not going to be tolerated,' Jill said.

"If it can't go on, it won't need to be tolerated. You're getting illogical-"

"And you're getting a lot of time to think."

Edna pictured herself trapped in her grandparents' dreary world. She was no longer sure if she was breathing. Hopefully she would pass out quickly and die. Until then she couldn't reveal any further weakness. Perhaps if she seemed happy about this idea it wouldn't seem like enough of a punishment, and her parents might change their minds. She could only hope that there was no way they were serious and that this was merely a sadistic joke, but the main challenge at the moment was to keep from crying."

I received Edna in the Desert by Maddy Lederman compliments of the author herself and eLectio Publishing for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions expressed here are strictly my own. I think every parent can relate to this novel partly because at times our children have had that stubborn rebellious streak in them. That no matter what we try to take away or how many times we might punish them, the behavior remains. I love the approach that Edna's parents take to send her to a place where there is no technology, no internet, nothing remotely similar to a life she left behind. IN fact, they just got a telephone so they aren't that far behind in the times. She has to learn to contend with things for the entire summer and her grandmother is definitely NOT someone you'd want to upset. The desert will offer more than Edna could bargain for and in many ways she will not return as the young girl she was when she arrived. There is some age appropriate material in this novel that I would strongly suggest isn't ideal for young teens when Edna encounters Johnny, a seventeen year old boy she finds she is attracted to. I rate this novel a 4 out of 5 stars for that reason and is a true coming of age story in many ways. This is Maddy Lederman's debut novel and I know that this will be the first of many in her future!

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Edna in the Desert by Maddy Lederman

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• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: eLectio Publishing (September 9, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615884733
• ISBN-13: 978-0615884738
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches