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Raspberry House Blues
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.
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.
248 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
2 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Linda Holeman
28 books241 followersLinda Holeman is the author of fourteen books of fiction. Her work includes two adult collections of literary short stories, Flying to Yellow and Devil’s Darning Needle, as well as the historic novels The Linnet Bird, The Moonlit Cage, In a Far Country, The Saffron Gate, The Lost Souls of Angelkov, and The Devil on Her Tongue. Her young adult body of work consists of a collection of short stories, Saying Good-Bye, which was re-released as Toxic Love, and four novels: Promise Song, Mercy’s Birds, Raspberry House Blues, and Search of the Moon King’s Daughter. She has also written a first-chapter book, Frankie on the Run, illustrated by Heather Collins. To date, Linda’s work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Greek, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Hungarian, soon to be published in Croatian, Italian, Czech and Slovakian.
As well as being published in many journals and periodicals, her work has been widely anthologized in Canada – most noticeably in The Journey Prize Anthology – and abroad. Linda has also acted as guest editor for a young adult issue of Prairie Fire Magazine, for which was she awarded the Vicky Metcalf Short Story Editor Award. She has been the recipient of many honours and awards for her young adult work.
Linda has been a member of the Manitoba Artists in the Schools Program and CANSCAIP, toured with the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, acted as a mentor in the Manitoba Writers’ Guild Mentor Program, taught creative writing through the University of Winnipeg’s Continuing Education, served on many juries, including the Governor-General’s Award for Children’s Literature, and created and facilitated numerous writing workshops on many aspects of the writing process to both students and adults nationally and internationally. She held a nine-month term as Writer-in-Residence at the Millennium Library in Winnipeg, and served on the editorial advisory board for Turnstone Press and on the board of the Manitoba Writers Guild. She is a member of The Writers Union of Canada.
Linda holds a BA in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Winnipeg, a BEd in Early Childhood Education and MEd in Educational Psychology from the University of Manitoba.
She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Source: http://www.lindaholeman.com/
As well as being published in many journals and periodicals, her work has been widely anthologized in Canada – most noticeably in The Journey Prize Anthology – and abroad. Linda has also acted as guest editor for a young adult issue of Prairie Fire Magazine, for which was she awarded the Vicky Metcalf Short Story Editor Award. She has been the recipient of many honours and awards for her young adult work.
Linda has been a member of the Manitoba Artists in the Schools Program and CANSCAIP, toured with the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, acted as a mentor in the Manitoba Writers’ Guild Mentor Program, taught creative writing through the University of Winnipeg’s Continuing Education, served on many juries, including the Governor-General’s Award for Children’s Literature, and created and facilitated numerous writing workshops on many aspects of the writing process to both students and adults nationally and internationally. She held a nine-month term as Writer-in-Residence at the Millennium Library in Winnipeg, and served on the editorial advisory board for Turnstone Press and on the board of the Manitoba Writers Guild. She is a member of The Writers Union of Canada.
Linda holds a BA in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Winnipeg, a BEd in Early Childhood Education and MEd in Educational Psychology from the University of Manitoba.
She currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Source: http://www.lindaholeman.com/
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 5, 2012
2.5 stars (I ended up liking it at the end, but for the majority of the book I thought it was ok)
Spoilers :)
I feel mean rating this book this low, as I did think it was a nice, sweet book with interesting characters. The only thing is I read this 8 years or so too late. I was given it as a present when I was in my early to mid-teens (I'm now 24) and it never got read, so now I'm working my way through some books I have had for years. If I read it when I was given it I would have rated it higher. That being said I wish more young teens read now and this book would be a very good start.
I liked the way Poppy started to appreciate the people around her and learned to appreciate the family she had (who were not blood related) rather than worrying so much about her real mother. In that sense this was an obvious outcome. I also liked the way she learnt more about herself and started to appreciate what is important (in the beginning I didn't like her character, she annoyed me, even towards the end there were points when she continued to do so)We can all im sure emphasise with needing and wanting closeness with our real parents so that being said it was a nice study of teenage feelings and dreams. Really it was a coming of age story, which means someone of that similar age will be affected by it more. Some elements I felt seemed a bit formulaic like the "New Age" parents (obviously an environment where Poppy didn't quite fit in at first needed to be created) When she met Becca Jell in the street and then later arrived at the house I thought, watch this be her mother. Okay it turned out not to be but the majority of the book then ended up being lots of little signs to make Poppy consider this which she picked up on, whilst I had already considered that conclusion.
It is a nice, touching, small book for young adults, a coming of age story which has a little bit of everything and has its moments of mystery. I just felt that I got less from it because I read it a lot later than planned. Some young adult books give as much to adults too (such as Warhorse) I thought that was fabulous, this sadly didn't grab me as an adult as much as it would if I were a pre-teen. That being said its a harmless, sweet story worth reading.
Spoilers :)
I feel mean rating this book this low, as I did think it was a nice, sweet book with interesting characters. The only thing is I read this 8 years or so too late. I was given it as a present when I was in my early to mid-teens (I'm now 24) and it never got read, so now I'm working my way through some books I have had for years. If I read it when I was given it I would have rated it higher. That being said I wish more young teens read now and this book would be a very good start.
I liked the way Poppy started to appreciate the people around her and learned to appreciate the family she had (who were not blood related) rather than worrying so much about her real mother. In that sense this was an obvious outcome. I also liked the way she learnt more about herself and started to appreciate what is important (in the beginning I didn't like her character, she annoyed me, even towards the end there were points when she continued to do so)We can all im sure emphasise with needing and wanting closeness with our real parents so that being said it was a nice study of teenage feelings and dreams. Really it was a coming of age story, which means someone of that similar age will be affected by it more. Some elements I felt seemed a bit formulaic like the "New Age" parents (obviously an environment where Poppy didn't quite fit in at first needed to be created) When she met Becca Jell in the street and then later arrived at the house I thought, watch this be her mother. Okay it turned out not to be but the majority of the book then ended up being lots of little signs to make Poppy consider this which she picked up on, whilst I had already considered that conclusion.
It is a nice, touching, small book for young adults, a coming of age story which has a little bit of everything and has its moments of mystery. I just felt that I got less from it because I read it a lot later than planned. Some young adult books give as much to adults too (such as Warhorse) I thought that was fabulous, this sadly didn't grab me as an adult as much as it would if I were a pre-teen. That being said its a harmless, sweet story worth reading.
July 24, 2007
The funniest part has to to be when Calypso describes her conception to Poppy.
November 28, 2008
Another of the books which I picked up for 20p from my library yesterday. It really is a wonderful book - it even managed to make me cry!
May 20, 2010
Takes place in Wolseley, Winnipeg. Amazing book.
February 20, 2013
it was great, but it took a while for me to understand the plot, but mayb its just me
January 28, 2025
Excellent YA read. Local to Winnipeg Manitoba Canada.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews