Finding Violet Park
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Jenny Valentine |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
Publication date | 3 January 2007 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 208 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0-00-721445-7 |
| OCLC | 71346653 |
Finding Violet Park is a young adult novel by Jenny Valentine, first published in 2007. It is about a fatherless teenage boy, Lucas Swain, who finds an urn containing the ashes of the titular Violet Park abandoned in a minicab office and determines to lay her to rest. It was released in America in April 2008, under the title Me, the Missing, and the Dead.
It won the 2007 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize,[1] was highly commended for the Branford Boase Award,[2] and was longlisted for the 2008 Manchester Book Award[3] and nominated for the 2008 Carnegie Medal.[4]
Jenny Valentine is also the author of Broken Soup, The Ant Colony, and The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight.
Synopsis
Lucas Swain is a sixteen year old whose father left five years ago under mysterious circumstances. Lucas is now living with his mother Nicky, his brother Jed, and sister Mercy. In the beginning of the novel Lucas is going to the Apollo cars cab shop to get a cab so he can get home. Then he sees an urn inside the cab shop and a mysterious name runs through his head, Violet. He then starts having an obsession with Violet because he is sure that she has something to tell him about his missing father.
Lucas then starts fantasising about what it would be like to be old. How he wants to act, where he wants to be buried, and whether his father is dead. Then he thinks of his grandmother Pansy, or the family medium, who he asks to get Violet from the cab shop. Later the person known to Lucas as Tony Soprano or the cab shop owner came by to give Violet “back” to Pansy. Norman, Pansy’s husband, almost ruining the plan by shouting out the random things he does because of the small strokes that he has.
Later Lucas goes home to a worried/frustrated mother and a caring family friend and more whose name is Bob. Bob later tells Lucas that he and Pete were writing a book about violet and where she used to live. Shocked, Lucas decides to investigate more into violet. Later Norman, Jed, and Lucas are walking their dog Jack, Norman has a brilliant moment and tells Lucas as much as he can about pete and violet before the next stroke kicks in.
Later Nicky decides that to get rid of Pete’s memory, they should get rid of his things. That is when Lucas finds Petes pocket watch and knows something isn’t right. Lucas and Nicky get into a fight about abandoning Pete’s memory but Lucas finds the crucial piece of evidence to show somethings wrong even though Nicky doesn't want to hear it.
After more searching Lucas finally finds something that shocks him. His father is dead.
Characters
- Lucas Swain: The protagonist, almost 16 and with a life full of problems one day encounters violet in a cab shop sparking the search for his father.
- Violet Park: The dead lady, a famous pianist who somehow knew Lucas’ father.
- Pete Swain: The missing father, went missing five years ago and has a strange connection to Violet.
- Martha Hooper: The girlfriend, one of the only people who believes Lucas and helps him through his search.
- Nicky Swain: The mother, an overprotective lady who still misses her husband even though she hides it.
- Pansy Swain: The grandmother, believes in spirits and one of the only people to believe Lucas and helps him get violet.
- Norman Swain: The grandfather, the war veteran with strokes who can’t remember a thing, until he hears about violet then he knows about Pete.
- Bob Cutforth: The family friend, an old friend of Pete’s and helps the family get through the five years by steadily getting closer to Nicky.
- Jed Swain: The brother, Lucas’ little brother who Norman tells everything to.
- Mercy Swain: The sister, the tomboy sister who doesn't look good in guys clothes.
Footnotes
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