Saving Francesca

by Melina Marchetta

Book Overview

Before there was Eleanor and Park, there was Francesca and Will.A compelling story of romance, family, and friendship, with humor and heart, perfect for fans of If I Stay, The Spectacular Now, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375829822
• ISBN13: 9780375829826
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

A fun thoughtful YA novel

I read lots of YA books, and Saving Francesca is one of my favorites.It is smart, thougtful but fun, happy but sad. I especially related to the author's treatment of depression. I loved it so much that I also picked up Looking for Alibrandi--which is also great. I would recommend this book to teenage girls and women.

I love this book

I could read this book a million times and never get tired of it! I recommend this book to everyone!

BEST BOOK EVER

I have read this book three times and I love thi book to death. The story is about Francesca, or Frances. Her mother, normally up-beat and lively, one day suddenly falls ill. She won't move from her bed or eat. It is up to frances to work her family, while dealing with some struggles in highschool. Will Trombal. She hates him one minute, they are making out the next. it is up to frances to solve her mother's mysterious illness, and keep her self alive. this book is wonderfully written, and grasps u to the fullest extent!

Saving Francesca

Saving Francesca is the story of a girl with so much on her mind, but without the right words to say it. At the beginning of the book, Francesca speaks of how irritated she is with her mother. She is sickened by her always be positive attitude, and her dramatic behavior. She is upset at her for making her attend St. Sebastian's, a school with 750 boys and only 30 girls. Francesca finds it difficult to be the social butterfly she was at her old school, and blames it all on her mother. She knows something is wrong when her mother begins sleeping late rather than waking Francesca up in the morning with uplifting music, but she figures that she is just sick. After several weeks of waking up to silence, Francesca is worried. She learns that her mother is suffering from depression, and she has a hard time understanding how this could happen to such an optimistic woman. She no longer looks at her mother as the woman who ruined her life, but as the woman who's life she ruined. She wishes that her mother would go back to normal, so that she could live the happy life she lived before the first day she awoke to silence. I enjoyed every last minute of Francesca's battles to get back to a life of normalcy. She was incredibly easy to relate to, and easy to feel for. Melina Marchetta brilliantly created a character that any teenage girl would want to read about. She goes through many of the same problems that normal girls go through, such as boy and friend problems, but also goes through so much more. The things that she goes through that could not be compared to normal every-day life, such as her mother's depression, are the things I enjoyed the most about this novel. It makes the little problems in our lives seem so small. It also gives you the desire to meet new people, and to really analyze the relationships that are existent in your life. Francesca wanted desperately to stay away from a certain group of girls at her school, but by the end of the novel realized that they were the girls that she needed the most. The girls that she once thought she needed the most were the girls who ended up needing her the least. Not only was this novel incredibly interesting and easy to relate to, it was also beautifully written. Many novels are written in the same format, but Melina Marchetta goes beyond that format and simply puts her words onto paper. She does not always pay attention to grammar and sentence structure, as we have been taught to do. It is this that makes many of her passages from the novel so easy to relate to. A run-on sentence that may have been marked to death by any english teacher may make it the easiest to understand the thoughts going through Francesca's head. If those thoughts had been broken up into smaller sentences, the desperation in Francesca's mind would never have been noticed. Marchetta brilliantly created grammatically incorrect but emotionally perfect sentences throughout this novel. I would recommend this book to anyone who is look

Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta

Saving Francesca is the much awaited second novel by the bestselling author Melina Marchetta. Marchetta's first novel was the award winning cross-over fiction Looking For Alibrandi and readers have been hungry for a second novel from this admired author. Finally Marchetta has produced a novel that satisfies expectations; Saving Francesca. This novel deals with many similar issues as her first novel; multiculturalism, Catholic education and the search for one's identity at a very significant time in life. The style of Melina Marchetta's writing has matured and she has once again produced a compelling read. Francesca's mother, Mia, is a very motivated and vivacious Communications Lecturer, who plays a huge role in the Spinelli family. Mia insists on sending Francesca to St Sebastian's, an all boy's school which has just started accepting girls. At St Stella's, Francesca's former school, she had belonged to the "cool group," the group that every girl dreams of being in. St Stella's only caters for students up until grade 10 (the majority of the students continued their education at Pius Senior College). Mia believes that Pius Senior College limits students and does not want this for Francesca. Much to Francesca's dismay she is bombarded with testosterone and forced to move away from her comfort zone to associate with three other girls from St Stella's; Siobhan the `slut', Tara the `fanatic' and Justine the `loser'. The students of St Sebastian's are thoroughly against sharing their school with females. They hate change and especially hate those who cause the change. They cannot deal with girls having an opinion and if faced with an opinionated female, label them a "lesbian". This does not cause Francesca any grief as she is a self described "go with the flow type" and much to Mia's apprehension, is reluctant to speak out. Francesca believes that Mia won't accept her for who she is and instead wants Francesca to be more like her. When the lively and passionate Mia, turns into a depressed bedridden mother, Francesca's family loses the key link in their lives and are close to break down. Francesca realises that without Mia's motivation and high spirits she is unsure who her mother is, and even more unsure who she is. So the journey begins. However; instead of Josie Alibrandi it is Francesca Spinelli who is on the road to self discovery. She begins to realise that her "hip," "down to earth" friends from St Stella's who saved her from befriending the "losers," were actually preventing her from showing her true colours. St Sebastian's guides Francesca on this journey of self discovery and on the way Francesca forms strong friendships, is faced with romance and realises that she is more like Mia than she thinks. Like Marchetta's first novel, Saving Francesca creates a powerful story in the period of one school year. This novel is relevant to teens in our society as it relates to many key issues; a major one being depression. This issue is portray