A Story that will Linger
There is SO MUCH to love about Susin Nielsen’s new teen novel Tremendous Things. The characters, the setting, the beautiful intergenerational friendship, all of it. There are laughs, there are tears and there are the most cringeworthy moments that all make Tremendous Things a lingering and endearing story.
Wilbur Alberto Nuñez-Knopf is at the start of ninth grade. He thinks things will be different but the torment that caught him in middle school has simply followed him to high school. He’s quirky, he plays the triangle in the school band, his best friend is his elderly neighbour and Tyler Kertz bullies him incessantly. He simply wants to exist in the background. When the band participates in an exchange program with a band from Paris, France things begin to change for Wilbur in so many different ways.
Living in Toronto, I loved that Susin set this story in the big city. She writes so clearly about the sights and sounds of living here and really made me connect with the story in the way you do when a story feels like it’s written just for you. The ROM, Kensington Market, the CN Tower all feature in this coming of age tale.
It’s apropos the story takes place in a city known for its diversity, as Susin Nielsen has added filled the pages with many different characters from many walks of life. There is Sal, Wilbur’s 85 year old neighbour, there are the aquacise ladies, Wilbur’s two moms and his best friend Alex Shirazi. The make up of the story is so reflective of the setting and the people in the city, the good and the bad.
There are so many beautiful references to E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, a book many of us read for the first time somewhere in grade 1 or 2. All of the enduring themes of Charlotte’s Web are tossed out in moments of struggle for Wilbur. The amazing way that Sal reminds Wilbur that he is Terrific, Radiant, Some Pig! As Charlotte did for her Wilbur in E.B. White’s story grabs at your heart.
Tremendous Things made me want to take a trip to the ROM (I did and brought the book with me so it could have a moment with Fulton, read it, you’ll understand), made me want to write letters to friends and mail them with stamps and everything. Mostly through Tremendous Things is a book I can’t get out of my head and want to reread it again.
