An Unusual Book- Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane

Once again, I am on the selection committee for next year’s Snow Willow awards. I just finished reading one of the strangest books I’ve ever read and needed to comment on it somewhere. Polly Horvath, award-winning Canadian author has written a book that bewilders me. I loved her Everything on a Waffle, which won a Newbery Honor. I haven’t read anything else, but am aware that several of her books have won multiple awards. Her books are quirky with unusual characters, but in The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane, my question would be, who is going to read this? Told from multiple points of view, which I love, immediately makes this book less accesible to a number of students. One of my good readers told me that the flashbacks in After were confusing for her. Although The Corps is a very clever book, with many eccentric characters all trying to come to terms with grief in their own way, I was at times hard-pressed to continue reading. It just all seemed too unbelievable, and yet not fantasy. Then at the end, all the loose ends were very quickly woven together, and even the normally taciturn uncle spills his heart suddenly. My question to you, Polly Horvath, is,” Who were you writing this book for?” We tell our students to understand who their audience is. If this is for young people, which ones will read and enjoy it? I actually find it difficult to write this because I hold authors in such esteem and you are certainly a very capable author. I am going to read The Canning Season and The Vacation and see if I can make some sense of this for myself.