Book Review - The Adoration of Jenna Fox

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

By Mary E. Pearson

Henry Holt and Company

2009

ISBN:978-0-312-59441-1

pp. 265

What makes you you? Is it your hair? Your eyes? Your personality? Your brain? What could you take away from yourself and still be “you”? While reading the novel The Adoration of Jenna Fox all of these questions knaw at you and truly never let go of you.

Jenna was not supposed to survive a terrible car crash, but she did. Set not too far in the future, the reader meets Jenna as she first “wakes up” from a long coma. What happened? Where is she? Why does her body look unharmed? Through Jenna’s eyes the reader slowly learns of Jenna’s past, her relationship with her parents, and her mysterious unscathed current state. As her parents encourage her to view videos of her past, she learns of their far reaching and perhaps all controlling love. She wonders out loud – can parents love too much? Do parents have the right to make life altering decisions for their children? At what age should those decisions be the child’s solely?

As Jenna learns more about her past, she struggles to understand more about her current life. The discovery that she truly has been altered – a choice her parents made in a desperate attempt not to lose her – both shocks and consumes her. Desperately trying to be her “own person”, Jenna finally rebels from her parents’ tight grasp and demands to go out into the world and attend school. School opens her up to many risks and many discoveries. Through her classmates she experiences love, loyalty, sadness and confusion – but can she really be having these feelings as a “created being”? Jenna’s journey of self-discovery although in a very altered experience seem to be universal enough to appeal to any young adult trying to discover themselves, their place in the world, and their meaning of life.

I would highly recommend this book to young adults from age 12 and up and would also highly recommend this book for adults. The questions of who we are, what makes us us, and how we all make decisions in the face of death are incredibly intriguing and will keep the reader turning pages sometimes faster than they can read them.

Other books that I  recommend that deal with scientific experimentation on humans for this age group:

The Maximum Ride Series by James Patterson
Although my middle school library has multiple copies of these books - I cannot keep them on the shelves. The main character is Max, a mutant teenager with wings, she along with her mutated group of friends struggle to define themselves in a "normal" world while they fight to survive against their scientific creators.
Click here for a more detailed book review click here.

Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam
A scientist captures two young girls and turns them into animals. As their bodies change they work to maintain their true human spirit of courage, love, and friendship. Does it matter what they look like? What makes them "them"? My sixth grade book group truly enjoyed using this book as a discussion for self-identity and discovery.