The Leaving

The Leaving and Other Stories by Budge Wilson is a collection of nine stories set in Nova Scotia about girls who are being pushed into the adult world. They face challenges like peer pressure and problems with friends and family. One of my favorite stories is "The Metaphor." It is about a seventh-grader named Charlotte and her literature and creative writing teacher, Miss Hancock. Miss Hancock is very enthusiastic about her job, and wears lots of makeup and flashy clothes. While her students love her, most adults consider her "brassy" and think she's too overenthusiastic. One day in class, Miss Hancock introduces her students to the metaphor. She gives the class an assignment to write metaphors about people and things they know, and Charlotte writes a long, intricate metaphor about how her mother is a flawless concrete building filled with machines. On the bottom few floors, Charlotte writes, people track mud all over the building and "mar its perfection." Miss Hancock is thrilled by the long metaphor (although a little disturbed by its meaning) and encourages Charlotte to write more. Charlotte starts writing metaphors in the bathtub at night. Then the story flashes forward a few years and Charlotte is starting her first day of high school. She's thrilled to find that her literature teacher is-Miss Hancock1 However, the other students think Miss Hancock's a joke and ridicule her every day, until she comes to school every day as a beaten-up wreck. Charlotte thinks she could stop this, but peer pressure convinces her not to. Then one day, Miss Hancock is killed by a bus. Charlotte is horrified and thinks that it's all her fault. At the end of the story, Charlottte is sadly writing a metaphor about Miss Hancock. Many of the stories are like that. All of them have preteen and teenage girls as the protagonists, and many of them have the girls facing some kind of loss, be it of a teacher, parent, or friend. I would recommend this book to any girl who has ever faced problems with friends or family.

The stories in the leaving will really help you in life, most of them will make you laught. It is a great book and worth the money.

If you are looking for a book of short stories that will keep your sixth to eighth grade students and readers debating about what the characters' true motives are all about, this is a perfect book of short stories with fiesty female protagonists. I have taught The Leaving for six years and I am still haunted by the characters, especially Lysandra and Elaine. Because Wilson uses first person "unreliable" narrators, she forces the readers to wonder about what the other characters are thinking. We never know why the brilliant Miss Hancock left seventh grade to teach tenth grade, consequently losing control of her class. The title story is a perfect excuse to tell students about Betty Friedan and life for women before The Feminine Mystique. What happened between the mother and Manuel Jenkins that caused her to cry alone at her dresser after he left and changed her family forever? I first read The Leaving with a faculty book discussion group and have been giving friends copies ever since.Each story is a gem.

I liked this book because it was written very well. The writer wasn't afraid to say things bluntly and to be honest about things. I also liked how the stories told about life and what things happen during these young girls growth into adulthood in Canada