Silver (Sarabeth, #1) (2024)

You're wish is my command, Laurel.

I went to my psychologist appointment yesterday. And while I was in the middle of crying about being ugly and weird, my lady doctor says "And who does that remind you of, hmmm?" And I say "Uhhh, I dont know?"
And she says, "Sounds like your mother to me."

f*ck, right?

I know my relationship with my parents is kind of bizarre, but my psychologist made me realize something that I can't stop thinking about.
90% of the time mother does not acknowledge my presence. I do the same to her (learned behavior?). Just today I came home this afternoon after being gone all day and my mom is sitting on the couch. I walk into the room and she doesn't even look my way.
I am actually sitting in the same room with her as I write this and we haven't said a word to each other. Is this normal? Probably not.

Last summer I stopped by my mom's house (I now live here, last summer I did not) and she was standing in the kitchen talking to some repairman. (About something lame, I'm sure)
My mom can be super weird and manic and waaaay over enthusiastic sometimes.
So, I walk into the kitchen and my mom says to the repair man,(imagine someone smiling all crazy and speaking with frantic excitment)

"This loooovely lady right here is my daughter, and she is veeeerrrry close to graduating from college!!! Aren't you? She is sooo smart, she has a photographic memory!"

My eyes bugged out, humiliation ran down my face and I said "Mom, I have 12 credits at community college and I haven't attended school in almost 5 years."

And her face falls and she says "Oh."

The moral of the story: My mother has not paid attention to me for a large portion of my life.

Oh and as far as the photgraphic memory goes, that is false information as well.
Where does she get this information???

I first read this book, Silver, when I around 11. I re-read it every few years.
I loved it because it was about a girl like me living the life I wanted.
Sarabether Silver lives in a trailerpark with her mom and cats. Her mom is a maid for some rich folks and they have trouble making ends meet. Even though money is tight, they make it work. Mom has a nice guy boyfriend named Leo and a best friend that lives a few trailers away. Then Sarabeth is sent to begin juniorhigh at a school where all the rich kids go. Drama ensues, lessons are learned. yadda yadda You can just imagine the rest. Or read it. Whatever.

So in my little head, that was who I wanted to be. But the only thing me and the main character had in common was living in a trailerpark.
I always imagined Sarabeth as thin and pretty in that delicate pretty way. I wanted Leo to be my step-dad and I wanted my actual step-dad , who was crackhead that sold all of our stuff and screamed and screamed and screamed and told me I was a bitch, would disappear.
I wanted my mom to be normal and have friends and not lie in bed on the weekends and use food and teenybopper magazines as a substitute for the love she was not capable of providing.

I am still totally amazed when I go to someones house and everyone sits down and eats dinner together and has conversations.

So, now that you know way too much about the origin of my psychological development, I will leave you with something I wrote last year about me and my mom:

One summer afternoon with my mom we went to a roadside stand and bought corn and peaches. We went home and sat with our legs dangling over the edge of the open backdoor to our trailer. The backdoor we didn't use because it had no steps. And we ate our peaches. Imagine eating the best tasting peach you ever had. Just imagine sitting next to your mother, both of your legs dangling out the backdoor with no stairwell. Imagine eating your perfect tasting peach on a perfect summer early evening. Then imagine seeing a rainbow that was meant just for you and your mom. (There really was a rainbow that day.) Imagine looking at your mother. Your beautiful mother with her perfect delicate lady-like hands holding the best tasting peach she will ever eat. She looks at you and you both know this is as good as it will ever get. And you want to eat another peach and then another.
Because years from now, when you are all grown, your mother will say "Remember that time when we sat out in the backdoor of the trailer and ate those peaches?" And you'll say "Yeah, those were the best."

And you remember eating them whole, leaving only the hard, brain-like pit behind.

I first read a novel by Mazer just a few months ago when I read Babyface. I loved Mazer's style, how she treated the characters with respect, how everything had such poignancy but no angst. I was happy I had picked up two books by her at the used bookstore, so I could pretty much guarantee another enjoyable read. Sure enough, I liked Silver even more than I liked Babyface.

Silver is a great narrator. She is funny and thoughtful and interesting. She's fourteen and cares about boys and friends but also about her mother and her mother's boyfriend and her mother's best friend. She cares about making money to help her mother out with bills, and she cares about deeper issues than who's going to the dance with whom. She has a developed personality, and she feels like someone I could actually meet in real life. The conflicts are everyday life conflicts, but there is one that revolves around a much more serious issue, a secret that one of Silver's friends at her new school shares with just her, at first. It takes up a good chunk of the second half of the novel, but the other conflicts are still present and important. I was thinking that Silver living in a trailer park but transferring to a wealthy school district and having rich friends would be too cliche, but it's deeper than that, and although some of those issues do come to the surface due to the school situation, that's not the main concern of the book.

The only thing I didn't care for about the book is the ending. In one way, I understand why Mazer ends it the way she does because it involves the girls standing up to someone who did one of them wrong, something they struggled to do with the bigger conflict of the novel, but in another way, it feels very abrupt and focused on one conflict rather than working with the complexity the entire novel contains.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I was happy to see that there is a "Silver #2" out there. I will definitely be adding that to my list and reading it eventually. I'd love to know more about Silver and what happens next for her. I highly recommend this book to any reader interested in contemporary fiction. It's a good example of how stories shouldn't be geared towards specific ages (downside of capitalism and the need for marketing) because this story, though "about" a 14-year-old girl, is really just a human story that anyone can appreciate, connect to, and learn from.

Side notes: I love the way Mazer handles the issue of sexual abuse of a minor by a family member. Even though it's hard to read, I think that she treats the subject with great care and makes a big enough deal out of it. This book could give young girls going through what Patty goes through the courage to speak up and tell a friend. Because Patty tells Silver, she is able to tell her other friends and then her mother, who finally believes her, and then, her best friend is able to tell the police and get Patty's uncle arrested--it's not entirely realistic or unrealistic the way it plays out--it could happen this way, it could work out, it could go just the way it needs to go for a young girl to have justice--and I love that the newspaper article condemning Patty's uncle names him but not her--she's protected, while he's exposed for the evil he's done to this child. I also love that Silver's name is actually Sarabeth Silver, but her new friends call her Silver, and it makes her feel special. There are great connotations to her name being the title of the novel and the meaning behind the "nickname."

I can't rate this book without bias because it's a childhood favorite. When I was 10 years old I owned only a handful of books & this was one of them, thus I read it dozens of times. I recently came across a copy & just had to get it as my old one was lost over the years. Reading it again, these many years later, was quite an experience. It was a quick read & quite good for its time, but if I didn't have a history with it I would have given it 3 stars. I liked it, sure, but as a child I loved it so. I don't think I'll re-read all my childhood favorites. Aside from Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Outsiders & the Narnia Chronicles, all of which I can still say I love today, I can't possibly enjoy those teeny bopper Sweet Valley High books of my youth now. This one though I don't regret revisiting.

One of the first YA books I read after becoming a YA librarian, by one of my favorite childhood authors (who was one of the reasons I became a YA librarian--I once got to tell that to Mazer at a Books for the Teenage reception at Donnell library in NYC).

Reread (for the 10,000th time), November 2015:
R.I.P. Aunt Becky. I think of you every time I read this book. I love it so much still, so thanks for buying it for me :)

Original review from June 2009:
I love this book. My Aunt Becky bought it for me at a used bookstore years and years ago, and I used to read it over and over. Somewhere along the way, I lost my copy or gave it away for some other girl to enjoy. I finally found a copy at a library book sale recently and I was ECSTATIC. I read through it quickly and still love it. Sarabeth Silver is one of my favorite book characters of all time--incredibly honest.

Ugh, I love young adult novels, and this is one of the reasons why.

Heavy!
I got to go in blind thankfully, although all the foreshadowing is there even in the various blurbs so it wasn’t a stretch. I really loved how much attention was paid to Sarabeth’s life and surroundings. I feel like sometimes vintage YA characters are superficial and don’t seem rooted in reality.
Loved:
Mark the Pillow
Art the Pillow
The big fight at the sleepover over whether to go for justice or be left alone
Descriptions of Sarabeth’s trailer in comparison with her friends’ homes
Patty’s disaffected airs as a defense mechanism
The sick burn on Mark Emelsky at the end!

My best friend had talked for ages about this book she'd read over and over as a kid and loved, despite its dark subject matter. Last weekend, our powers combined, we FINALLY solved this mystery, and I ordered it for her (since thanks to my Amazon Prime membership I get free shipping) so of course I couldn't let it leave my apartment without my having read it first.

And I'm really glad I did, even though, geez, YA from the 1990s is so crazy different from YA now. Seriously, it's just written so differently, and stuff that flew then just never would now.

I love how class and gender issues were tackled, on top of the Big Issue of this book.

Also I love fictional kitties. Obviously.

(read: 129)

I am still angry about the second book.

a great book that I know was awesome when I read it as a teenager. it was still good and that says a Lot!

Silver is a book written by Norma Fox Mazer with a lexile level of 520L. The book is about a teen girl who lives in a trailer park and moves to a school full of rich kids and becomes friends with Grant, Patty, Asa, and Jennifer, who she finds out are not as perfect as they seem on the outside.
I think the main theme of the book is not to judge people by how they look or by how much money they have.This theme is shown by how Sarabeth immediately thought that all the people at her new school were going to be stuck up and snotty because they were all rich, and how those kids were so disgusted and surprised when she told them she lived in a trailer. Sarabeth discovers that there is much more to her friends than their money and that they all have problems of their own that they have to deal with. Patty learns that there is more to a family then how big their house is or how much money they have when she has to live with Sarabeth for a while. ‘“You live in a trailer?” “Yes.” You really do?” She looked horrified.’(p. 23) This is an example of one of the girls from her school finding out that she didn’t live in a normal house and being surprised.
This book was an easy read, it didn’t have many big words that kids wouldn’t understand. I didn’t like the ending very much because it was a cliffhanger and the author could have done much more with it. I don’t think it was that great of a book but it would be recommended to any age group. There really wasn’t anything special about this book and it was honestly kind of boring to read. I do not recommend this book to people who like interesting or action packed books.

Sarabeth Silver, who lives in a trailer park, just started at a new school where all the rich kids go. Somehow she manages to join a group of girls who seem pretty and popular, but soon discovers that being rich doesn't solve all problems when one of the girls reveals a dark secret.

This was an oddly light book about sexual abuse (that's what the big secret was, and why I bought this at a library book sale. I must know all the secrets!). At first I assumed it would be Grant with the secret, but ended up being one of the other girls. Because it wasn't Sarabeth herself who had the secret, it was more about how Sarabeth looks at her life through her new friends' eyes and how she has a great mom with a boyfriend who is really cool. The way the sexual abuse is framed, nothing is specific and it doesn't sound like anything too serious, but definitely something not right is happening, which softens the seriousness of the secret quite a bit. I'm not sure that, as a teen, I would have really known what was going on (those were different times...). The whole subplot with Mark seemed a bit unnecessary, especially in the way she treated him in the end - she didn't seem to pick up on him being uninterested in her.

Although I enjoyed the overall story arc, several things about this story were just weird.

There are a few scenes that were hard for me to follow and understand the reactions and behaviors of the characters involved. I couldn't wrap my head around why what was happening was perceived the way that it was.

I also had a little trouble keeping some of the minor characters straight. Also, there is not always a clear sense of the passage of time.

The ending was awkward and seemed out of character for the characters involved considering what they had just been through. However, there is a sequel to this story, so perhaps the ending will make more sense if I read it? I hope so.

I read this in high school and only recently tracked a copy down. I remember missing P.E again and having to sit in the rickety, cold storage hut while everyone ran outside. I had taken this out of the library and always had a book on hand.
Reading this as an adult makes you realize just how clever Fox Mazer's writing is. She weaves these characters that feel so real, and pulls you into their life. Each of Sarabeth's friends are distinct, her own struggles to fit in are still very resonant today.

(I'm rating solely on memory of me as a sixth grader in '96 or so. I recently (2020) read another one of Fox Mazer's books and added this one without a rating or approximate date. May re-read to edit score/review but for now 👍👍)

Very good novel, highlighting the struggle of growing up and finding new friends. Amazing Y.A. fiction

Re-reading a book from my junior high days. Still good, well written, I could easily picture the whole story.

One of my favorite books from childhood about growing up poor and making do. Knowing that money doesn't erase problems.

This was the first book I read in 8th grade. I loved it. So glad I found it again. Will definitely be reading it again.

As good as one of those ABC after school specials from the 80s.

3.5

Probably a 4.3 for me. At times funny, at times gutting. Norma Fox-Mazer is definitely a good author to try if you've run out of Blumes.

This was definitely on my one top five list as a kid. I was obsessed with it.

It’s a coming of age book!! And these girls all have issues! It’s about not fitting in but then fitting in and finding friendship!

3.5

The story turned out to be very different with the plot twist during the end of the story. At first it seemed so original at the beginning.

Silverby: Norma Fox Mazer
Can you imagine having to start a new life. Moving away from your school, all your friends, and even your home? That is what twelve-year-old Sarabeth had to do. New bus, new school, new class, new kids. Can you even imagine?
The book Silverby Norma Fox Mazer is a wonderful, sensitive, and meaningful friendship story. It is about a girl named Sarabeth Silver who lived in Morrisview Central and has to leave everything, and move to Roadview Trailer Park. Just so she can go to a better school, with all the rich kids. She is not so excited at first, but slowly, it gets better and better. Soon, she becomes a part of a small group of pretty, smart, and popular girls. They have everything money can buy. They become close, almost too close, and learn some of their secrets, that are more secretive and dangerous than anything she has ever known.
This book teaches many life lessons, but one really stood out to me. Sarabeth was really close to her mom, and cared a lot about how her family was healthy, money-wise, and happy. Although that is a very important thing in life, because family will always be with you for forever, it is also good to have one or more friends that you can trust and know that they will be there for you in times of need. Sarabeth learns this throughout the book, and although she still keeps her family close, she also knows she can keep her friends just as close as well.
Rating: * * * *
I would give this book a rating of 4 out of 5 because it is good and well-written. although, at parts there were some tough words that I did not understand. I also thought that sometimes, the author was too broad, and I wish that it was more descriptive. And when the author did go into detail, it was on a little thing, not something that was really important to the plot of the story. Although the book was not as detailed as I would have liked it to be, it was still a great, interesting book that I would recommend to anybody that likes a good Realistic-Fiction book and friendship story.

This was one of those books I found myself picking up over and over when I was in high school (thank god for libraries). I recently reread it now because

1) I wanted to see if it stood up to my standards now that I'm an adult.
2) This site recently informed me there was actually a sequel, called Girlhearts, that I wasn't aware of and I wanted to brush up on this so I could read that properly.

I was pleased to find that it still stands as some pretty solid YA fare. This story was published in 1989, so it is definitely a little dated, but it tackles subjects that are still relevant today, such as poverty and abuse and works towards deconstructing the 'clique' attitude that was rampant during the novel's release. Honestly, the only thing that tipped me off that it was an older book when I was younger was that I noticed there were no cellphones.

The story is about Sarabeth Silver, a young girl who lives in a trailer home with her mother and gets transferred to the nicer public school in town by moving over a few hundred feet into a new trailer that opened. At the new school, Sarabeth slowly befriends a girl named Grant, who seems to be a polar opposite of Sarabeth; she's confident, rich, and has several friends. Now I may have lost a few of you there, but this is where the book is brilliant.

**spoilers** The book is taking you for a ride. It's tricking you into thinking this is some mediocre YA book about a shy poor girl being accepted into the rich clique and suddenly everything is fantastic for her. It even tricks you like this for almost half the book. And then, it turns out one of Grant's friends has some very serious issues that Sarabeth becomes involved with, and this is where the novel gets real. I don't want to spoil anything too bad, but let's just say it left me pleased. I was expecting a cookie-cutter story, and I got great characters, some very pretty lines, and a sudden new plot point that puts the whole novel on its ear and gets to some real good subject matter.

Picked this one up in a community honor-bar shelf just because it reminds me of being a YA myself since Norma Fox Mazer was around back then. I wish I had time to read more YA books - this one definitely isn't preachy, the characters don't all do the right things (but they also don't do anything terribly wrong); still, it's not meant simply as idle entertainment and that's obvious.

The topic was handled with sensitivity and natural context so it didn't feel like the whole book was all about that (which is good, because that's one of the weird/surreal things about abuse is that regular life goes on all around it, bizarrely enough). Also appreciated not having a bunch of lurid, explicit, horrifyingly graphic descriptions of the abuse. I understand why sometimes a certain degree of that is needed or good, but it isn't always necessary.

Edited to add a star, bumping it up after reminder of the good way class issues were represented and dealt with.

I read this book around late 8th grade/early 9th grade and felt like I could completely relate to her being in a new school and feeling out of place. I had just moved to a new school as well. It's a young adult book but had deep subject material - dealing with sexual abuse. I remember getting very involved in the characters, especially since I was the same age. It's not an amazing read but definitely thought provoking for a teen.

This was one of my favorite books as a pre-teen person. I had to read "After the Rain" in school and hated it, but I loved "Silver." It deals with the scary subject of child sexual abuse in a pretty down to earth, nonexplicit way. I love the descriptions of Sarabeth and her mom at home in the trailer park which are real without being cliches.