Ship sooner /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Sullivan, Mary, 1966-
Edition:	1st ed.
Imprint:	New York : Morrow, c2004.
Description:	274 p. ; 22 cm.
Language:	English
Subject:	Teenage girls -- Fiction. Gifted teenagers -- Fiction. Hearing -- Fiction. Gifted teenagers. Hearing. Teenage girls. Fiction.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/5073466

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	0060562404

Review by Booklist Review

At 13, Ship thinks she is on a journey to find the father she never knew, but this riveting novel transforms the classical quest into a beautiful contemporary drama of family secrets and coming-of-age. Ship has super hearing, both a gift and a torment. She hears a leaf falling, her boyfriend's heartbeat, her sister's snapping gum, her mother's whispered phone calls. What she discovers, spying and eavesdropping on family and neighbors in her small Massachusetts town, nearly destroys her. As her older sister says, Ship may know everything, but she's clueless. But so are the adults, so busy looking for what they don't have that they miss what's right there in front of them. As in Sullivan's first novel, Stay (2000), the child's viewpoint is both character and story. The plain prose is utterly devoid of self-conscious, poetic description. The gripping mystery makes you rush to the end, but at the same time, the drama is in the heartfelt details that make you think about the kid who transforms herself from onlooker to hero. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2003 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Sheila "Ship" Sooner, a 13-year-old girl born with "exceptional hearing," can hear conversations whispered behind closed doors, the flutter of other people's eyelids and even the heartbeat of her best friend and neighbor, Brian Dodd. She wears ear caps to dampen the unbearable loudness of the world (smoke alarms and passing trains leave her howling in pain), removing the headphone-like device only to spy, along with Brian, on the citizens of 1970s Herringtown, Mass. But just because Ship hears everything doesn't mean the overinformed, socially awkward adolescent understands it. She feels singularly distant from her high-heel-clad mother, Teresa, who is loving but preoccupied with petty gossip and men, and her older, cheerleader sister, Helen. When Teresa is called to care for a sick friend, her increasingly long absences, joined with Helen's cruelty and Brian's mysterious disappearance, leave Ship adrift. Ship's acute hearing causes her to make a startling discovery, and the rest of the novel follows her confused wanderings as she tries blindly to care for someone even more helpless than herself while she searches for Brian. Ship's misadventures are increasingly unlikely, but the compelling characters carefully developed in the first half-not to mention the evocative descriptions of Ship's "miracle hearing" ("A lighter snaps open, then a flame licks up, followed by the burn, the hiss, and the singe of Trudy's cigarette")-hold the reader's interest to the end. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Review by Library Journal Review

In her second novel (after Stay), Sullivan, coordinator for PEN New England, puts an inventive twist on the coming-of-age genre. Ship Sooner can hear really well-she can even grasp a quiet conversation inside a house while she is standing outside, some distance away. Only 13, she was born with this uncanny sense, which has relegated her to life as an outsider. Kids ridicule her, and adults walk away quickly, lest they be overheard. Ship (born Sheila), mom Teresa, and sister Helen live in a small town on the north shore of Massachusetts. Their father walked out on them one day, never to be seen or heard from again. Teresa is doing her best to raise two teenaged daughters, baking for a living around the clock and caring for her ailing friend, Trudy. One day, Ship is waiting for Teresa after school when her hearing leads her to a discovery in the woods that sets her world on end. Realistic and heartbreaking yet hopeful, this story of a small family trying to make its way against all odds engrosses the reader. Recommended for adult and teen fiction collections in most public libraries.-Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review by School Library Journal Review

Adult/High School-Ship Sooner has hearing so sensitive that she has to wear special ear covers to keep out sounds. Because of her special gift, the 13-year-old knows things that no one knows she knows. She hears her friend Brian and his father discuss family secrets. She knows what her sister Helen is doing with boys in the old shed. She frightens the kids in town because they don't know what she might know about them. When Brian disappears after his dad catches him at the shed with Helen, Ship is especially lonely. Walking in the woods one day, she discovers a newborn girl wrapped in a towel and buried in the dirt. She thinks she knows who the mother is but decides to care for the infant herself. The resulting journey-to find Brian, to find her father, and to save the baby-is both disturbing and lonely. Eventually, she realizes that she needs help and returns home where she discovers the truth about the baby. Relationships in the family change as a result and Ship makes a step into adulthood. Brutal and engrossing, with eccentric characters and a circular plot of coming home again, Sullivan's novel is dark yet hopeful.-Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review by Kirkus Book Review

Second novel from Sullivan (Stay, 2000), featuring an eponymous heroine who has an unusual physical condition that sets her apart in a small Massachusetts community. Because of her abnormally powerful hearing, 13-year-old Ship must wear ear-caps to block the onslaught of sound that otherwise overwhelms her. Ship's mother, Teresa, abandoned 11 years ago by her husband, supports her two daughters by baking pies for a local diner. Ship's only friend is her neighbor Brian; the kids amuse themselves by taking advantage of her exceptional hearing to listen in on people's dirty secrets. Brian's own family secret is developed as a heavy-handed mystery comprised of unexplained Sunday outings, a mother who won't leave the house, an overly hearty father, an accident Brian won't discuss, and someone named Johnny mentioned occasionally by mistake. Meanwhile, older sister Helen, a tenth-grader, who is unrelentingly mean to Ship, has taken up with the stereotypical local rich boy Owen. Already sensing that Brian is also drawn to Helen, Ship is heartbroken when she witnesses her sister giving the boy a blow job at vicious Owen's urging shortly before Christmas. After Christmas Brian disappears without warning, and his parents won't tell Ship where he's gone. As Easter approaches, Brian is still gone, and Helen is still mean (she's been dumped by Owen). Walking in the woods, Ship finds an abandoned newborn and guesses it is Helen's; she's right, but the clues, like so much of the plot and character development here, feel contrived. Ship spends the next two days wandering around town, hiding from her family and trying to care for the increasingly hungry infant. Coincidently, Brian returns with his mentally damaged brother--you guessed it, someone named Johnny. After a moment of almost tragic violence, Brian's family reconciles, Teresa (with Helen in tow) finds Ship, and the baby finally gets fed. Despite some genuinely lovely bits of lyrical description, the usual roundup of quirky characters never comes to life within the manufactured plot. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.