Spin

Dililah Doucette – Dizzy as she’s known to everyone who knows and loves her - seems to have everything a 15-year-old girl could possibly want: devoted and doting father, supportive and engaged brother, good friends, and most exciting of all, a budding DJ career. The only thing missing in Dizzy’s life is a mother.

But Dizzy’s mom isn’t missing. The truth is she abandoned her partner and two children 14 years ago to chase stardom. Since then she’s become a mega star – think, Beyoncé or Madonna. A subsequent legal agreement she forced upon her ex-partner prohibits the family from acknowledging their existence. Dizzy can never reveal to anyone that her mother is the famous pop star Georgia Waters.

Spin is Winnipeg author Colleen Nelson’s seventh young adult novel. Like all of Nelson’s novels, the book’s unique setting has been meticulously researched. As a result, the reader feels easily immersed in the digital music and sound engineering world that Nelson creates. Nelson makes readers understand what mixing music is all about and why Dizzy loves it.

Until now Dizzy, her brother Lou, and even their father Ray have coped. The three live above Ray’s well-respected but anachronistic record store, The Vinyl Trap, where both kids also work shifts. They share a love of music and loving supportive friends. And even though they’re all keeping secrets, the family is close. Each has found ways to manage the heartache since Georgia left them. For Ray, that means occasionally blowing off steam secretly playing his beloved saxophone in the subway. Lou supresses his pain and anger but is wondering if it’s time to leave the family nest. Maybe the tell-all letter he writes on his university entrance application will be his ticket. Meanwhile growing the store’s social media presence, a new girlfriend and secretly auditing an English class keep Lou busy. In between fantasizing about why her mother left them and just being a regular teenager, Dizzy has found joy and excitement mixing music and dreaming of becoming a DJ.

The plot is stirred when Dizzy gets the chance to open for local favourite DJ Erika at the store’s popular Friday Night Spin event. Dizzy’s set is a hit, and, in the wake of her new celebrity, she brazenly uploads a mix that includes previously unknown tracks of Georgia made years before she became famous. While savoring the attention, Dizzy worries what will happen if her father finds out and wonders, “What if Georgia’s music, which had torn my family apart, brought it back together?”

The announcement of a Georgia Waters concert coming to town sets the stage for an inevitable reckoning. Dizzy and her friend Maya concoct a plan that - through the magic of Colleen Nelson’s storytelling - miraculously gets Dizzy into Georgia’s dressing room and into the presence of her mother. The first time in 10 years.

The lessons learned in the fallout from this encounter, lessons learned by everyone, is what gives this novel its emotional gravitas. Nelson does not settle for simplistic or satisfying resolutions. Instead, the reader goes along with the characters as each works through the heavy, messy business of living life.

Despite these plot points, the emotional tone of this novel is cheerful and positive largely due to the engaging characters Nelson has created. Through Ray, Nelson challenges our stereotypes about gender roles and norms. When Georgia left to follow her dreams, Ray stayed and gave up his. Georgia abandoned her children, but Ray made them his focus and his most important job. The result is two young people who struggle but are resilient and loving. Readers see that Lou feels lost, but they also see his pride in his sister, and it’s hard not to believe he, too, will reconcile with Georgia someday.

Each chapter is narrated by Dizzy, Lou or sometimes Ray, but Dizzy is the star and energy source of this novel. The target audience of young teen girls will identify with Dizzy’s reactions and her desire to take control even when the odds are against her, and they will appreciate her warmth, courage and creativity.

Spin will be a welcome addition to libraries that focus on junior high and early high school audiences, especially those that already circulate Colleen Nelson’s work.