The Wrong Side Of Right

The Wrong Side Of Right

YA novel
If you follow election news coverage you might be a bit peturbed
by what goes down. Does it seem that big time politicians will do
just about anything to get themselves elected including using friends
and family members to achieve this goal? What if these people aren't
even old enough to vote? Jenn Marie Thorne's The Wrong Side Of Right
tackles this very pertinent issue in a unique and intriguing coming of
age story.
Kate has just finished an AP final. Her uncle with whom she
lives (her mom had died the year before) calls to tell her to come
home right away. Reporters are surrounding her home. One asks her
when she learned that Senator Cooper was her father...
...Senator Cooper as in the Republican candidate for president.
It seems that in a much earlier campaign when Kate's mom was a young
election volunteer he was not as faithful to his wife as he should
have been. The existance of an illigitimate child has been leaked to
the press. The opposition is making much of his earlier infidelity.
Now he is sitting in Kate's living room trying to figure out if
there's any truth to the accusition.
Before she knows it, Kate is spending a campaign summer with the
senator and his family. She enjoys being a big sister for the most
part. Meg, the senator's wife, is warm and gracious. The senator
himself is an enegma--an almost always missing enigma. Does he really
want to bring his newly discovered daughter into his life? Is he
instead just putting the spin on the story that he believes will make
him most electable?
Then there's the son of the President who is running for
reelection and, therefore, Kate's dad's rival. He has a bad boy
reputation...gives his father's entourage quite a few anxious
moments. He seems intent on befriending (and possibly going beyond
befriending) her. Intuitively this seems strange to Kate. Aren't
their parents fighting for the nation's most powerful office? But he
may be the only one who understands what she's going through on the
campaign trail.
The Wrong Side Of Right will make a great summer read for a book
seeking teen who is not all into glittery vampires.
On a personal note, once upon a time I was a Democrat campaign
volunteer. I'd worked on campaigns so long I don't remember when I
started. My favorite was the presidential campaign of 2004. My kids
and I were eating, breathing, sleeping campaign, subsisting for the
most part on whatever was at headquarters--high on taste and low on
nutrition. We were so united. It felt like magic. Since then the
shine has worn off the two party system in my eyes. It's like being
in a family where every other year the parents battle for the custody
of the kids and then forget they exist.
A great big shout out goes out to all who are trying to reform
America's slightly dysfunctional system for electing leaders.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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