The Elizabeth Stories Author:Isabel Huggan, Aline Martineau (Illustrator) This collection of eight interconnected stories about the pleasures and pains of growing up focuses on Elizabeth, and awkward child who is always on the brink of being laughed at, teased, or ignored. — Elizabeth's memories of her youth are hardly idyllic. In a confessional tone, she recounts episodes such as her demeaning role as Jack in a ba... more »llet recital; her crush on a high-school teacher who is later imprisoned for wife-beating; and psuedo-sexual encounters in childhood, at a girls' camp, and later with a teenage boy. Huggan's descriptive prose combines with her protagonist's honest, although sometimes whining, voice to paint detailed, lively portraits of her remote, suspicious parents; empty-headed peers; and the superficial, narrow confines of small-town life. Elizabeth's perspective on the lot of her homemaker mother is particularly probed.« less