Product Description

Poppy is on an odyssey. Her adoptive mother has taken off to find herself, so Poppy decides to live with her adoptive father, his new wife, Calypso, and their toddler, Sandeep, in a ramshackle rasp-berry-colored house. At first Poppy is distressed by the disordered household, which is unlike anything she has ever known, but soon it becomes a jumping-off point for her search for her birth mother.

Poppy discovers a great many things in the course of her search. She finds a kindred spirit in a strange, sickly woman named Becca, and an unexpected connection with the hippy, Calypso. But most of all, she finds a part of herself she didn’t even know was missing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1844921 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-01
• Released on: 2000-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-10-When Poppy's divorced mother spends the summer in Greece with her boyfriend, the adopted teen decides to visit her dad and his new family in Winnipeg and search for her birth mother. The visit has its ups and downs. Her stepmother's pregnancy obliges Poppy to do much of the housework and help take care of her two-year-old half-brother. The rather bohemian lifestyle that her father and Calypso lead makes her uncomfortable, as do the town's rampant cankerworms that drop from the trees into her hair. Then she meets Becca, an elusive woman who, like Poppy, has red hair and who once gave away a baby girl for adoption. When Poppy discovers that Becca is not her mother, they part with Becca's words, "Perhaps we're always looking, hoping to find the thing we want-we think we need-in someone else." The teen's quest for her mother becomes a journey into self-awareness and she, with the help of her new friend Mac, discovers what the word "family" really means. Sensitively written, the story explores a variety of relational issues in a realistic way. Poppy is rather self-centered, prickly, and fiercely independent, though also insecure, good-hearted, and loving. An appealing book with a host of unusual characters that will worm their way into readers' hearts.
Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap
Poppy is on an odyssey. Her adoptive mother has taken off to find herself, so Poppy decides to live with her adoptive father, his new wife, Calypso, and their toddler, Sandeep, in a ramshackle rasp-berry-colored house. At first Poppy is distressed by the disordered household, which is unlike anything she has ever known, but soon it becomes a jumping-off point for her search for her birth mother.

Poppy discovers a great many things in the course of her search. She finds a kindred spirit in a strange, sickly woman named Becca, and an unexpected connection with the hippy, Calypso. But most of all, she finds a part of herself she didn?t even know was missing.

About the Author
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Linda Holeman had always dreamed of becoming an author. Her first writing success came when she was in grade 5. A story she had written was aired on the CBC radio program “Story Broadcast Journal” and she still has a copy of the booklet it was published in.

Her career has included stints as a classroom and resource teacher and an adult workshop instructor. Her first published work as an adult was a collection of short stories called Saying Good-bye in 1995. She is the author of Frankie on the Run, a picture book and Flying to Yellow and The Devil’s Darning Needle, two collections of short stories for adults. Her fiction and non-fiction pieces have appeared in numerous anthologies.

Both Promise Song, her first young adult novel and Mercy’s Birds, her second, were selected for Books for the Teen Age lists by The New York Public Library. Her third YA novel, Raspberry House Blues, was published in Fall 2000 to excellent reviews. All three novels feature strong female teen protagonists and have been praised for the true representation of character, and especially, dialogue. Search of the Moon King’s Daughter is a new work of historical fiction, already being well received. Linda Holeman lives in Winnipeg with her husband and three children.

Customer Reviews

Raspberry House Blues
The search for home is the subject of this tenderly written novel about a young girl's journey to locate her birth mother. Poppy is seventeen, tall, red-haired and adopted. Since the age of five, she has lived with her adoptive mother Denise in Winnipeg. Recently Denise has take up with Marcus, a poet from Greece. Her father Eric has started a new family in Vancouver. Poppy decides that the only person who can really care about her must be her birth mother. As the beginning of a summer holiday, she travels to Vancouver to undertake a journey that will introduce her to many new people and situations. By the end of summer, Poppy discovers that she has learned much on this spiritual odyssey, mostly about herself and the value of a family bonds.

Linda Holeman writes in a style that is easy to read and contemporary in setting. In this book, she has created a cast of characters that are so real, they could be personal family members. Poppy is a whole person, capable of being sweet and sensitive, but acting at times in ways that are also selfish and stubbornly single minded.

A good read!

Surprisingly great!
When I bought this book I had my doubts. I thought it would be just a cliche "girl finds love unexpected places while trying to find someone." I also was not very excited to find that Winnipeg is the setting of this novel. Instead, it was a funny and extremely realistic book. As I was reading, I could easily see myself as Poppy, the main character. Everything was so real I could not believe it. Also, the author writes with great descriptions and uses Winnipeg to her advantage. This is a book that every teenaged girl should read. You will fall in love with almost all the characters, including Poppy's loving, but clued-out dad, her hippie step mom, and the eccentric Becca. Go read this book now!

A must read!
This was such a great book! I finished it in 3 days, and I'm usually a pretty slow reader. I couldn't put it down! It is about a sixteen year-old girl named Poppy who lives with her adoptive mother in Winnipeg. When her mother takes off to Greece with her boyfriend, Poppy has to stay with her mother's friend for the summer. Poppy doesn't think much of that idea, so she gets on a plane to Winnipeg where her father lives. There she stays with her father, stepmother and their son while she searches for her birth mother. I don't want to give away any more of this story, you'll have to read it for yourself! I strongly recommend this book, especially to girls aged 12-16.