Room

Room by Emma Donoghue
336 pages
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
ISBN:  0316098337
Reading Level/Lexile:  9th grade and up/NA
Genre:  Adult Crossover

Annotation/Teaser:  Jack is a typical 5 year old in every way except one.  He has lived his entire life in one room with his mom and an occasional night visitor.  Room is the only thing Jack has ever known but it is his mom's prison.  When suddenly their world expands, how will this affect Jack and his mom?  What will the consequences be for this 5 year old?

Plot Summary:  Room is 5 year old Jack's world.  It is where he lives with his Ma.  He has never left Room and it is where he learns, reads, eats, and sleeps.  At night, Ma closes Jack inside the wardrobe because she thinks he can't hear the visits from Ol' Nick.  Room is all that Jack knows but Room is a prison to Ma.  It is where she has been locked by Ol' Nick for 7 years.  She has tried to make life as normal as possible for Jack.  She comes up with a plan to escape that involves using Jack and counts on Jack to be brave .  What she doesn't count on is the reality that the plan will actually work.  She is totally unprepared for what they find outside Room.

About the Author:  Emma Donoghue " Born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, I am the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue (the literary critic, Henry James Professor at New York University). I attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one eye-opening year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 I earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin (unfortunately, without learning to actually speak French). I moved to England, and in 1997 received my PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. From the age of 23, I have earned my living as a writer, and have been lucky enough to never have an ‘honest job’ since I was sacked after a single summer month as a chambermaid. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 I settled in London, Ontario, where I live with Chris Roulston and our son Finn (8) and daughter Una (5)."

Emma Donoghue Bio (n.d.)  Retrieved from www.emmadonoghue.com

Critical Evaluation:  Room is a beautifully written story told from the point of view of 5 year old Jack.  There are so many limitations by telling this story from a child's point of view that it is hard to imagine that the reader  would even know what is going on.  But Emma Donoghue is brilliant.  Donoghue brilliantly allows Jack's innocent voice to give the reader an insight without jeopardizing the innocence of the 5 year old child but allowing the reader the insight to know more.  For example, the description of Ol' Nick coming to bed and making the bed creak 217 times is innocent when Jack tells it but the reader knows the actual horror of what is going on. 
The setting is a garden shed in the kidnapper's back yard and we quickly see that is a prison for Ma while Jack finds security Room. Everyday objects and furniture have been imaginatively personified by Jack.  Meltedy Spoon is Jack's favorite piece of silverware, Wardrobe is where he sleeps, and Table is scratched up and Jack tries to rub the scratches to make them better. 
The plot is developed as things take a turn about midway through the book. After Jack's 5th birthday, Ma begins to devise a plan to escape her prison.  This is where the new characters are introduced and Jack is introduced to Outside.  This plot development is magnificent and keeps the reader wanting more until the very end.  Though wonderfully written, this book left me horrified yet intrigued. There was a part in the book where the reader is allowed to see Jack is still breastfeeding.  While this is a controversial issue in general, I felt this issue could have been developed and resolved a little more than it was in the book.   I would recommend this book to everyone, teens and adults.  

Curriculum Ties:  N/A

Book Talk Ideas:  What if your whole life was lived in one room?  How would things be when you were finally freed from the room?

Controversial Issues:  Kidnapping, Rape

Defense:
*I will keep the library's selection policy on hand and memorized with a good understanding  of the standards and policies to show that the selection meets the standards. 

*I will keep good and bad reviews (both electronic and print) and make sure they are from reliable and respected sources such as School of Library Journal, Booklist, and YALSA. I will have copies of these reviews to give away. 

*I will confirm the library's position to provide intellectual freedom as stated in the Library Bill of Rights and keep a copy of this.

*I will keep a written rationale to justify the reasons this material is included in the collection, such as educational significance and curriculum ties.

*I will be respectful and calm and practice "active listening".

*I will make sure I read the material and are very familiar with it.

* I will keep a reconsideration form on file in the event that my other strategies don't work. 

Why I Chose This Book?  I chose this book because it was told in the 5 year old voice.  I thought this book was amazingly written and the characters were brilliant.  I felt  I needed to include this because of the mom did such a  good job raising Jack that he didn't know that the room was a prison.