Albie: from zero to hero
Eleven Out of Ten
by Stacey Matson
Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2026
$12.99 / 9781039708792
Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy
*
People at every stage of life find little more unsettling than chance events that threaten the lives of loved ones. Imagine the grief and perplexity such an event causes for eleven-year-old Albie, whose biggest previous challenge was coming up with fresh material for scoring people, objects, and events around her (hence, the book’s title).
When Lake, Albie’s next-door-neighbour cousin and soul mate, is rendered comatose by a diving mishap, our home-schooled heroine confronts more harrowing hallmarks of adulthood than seems fair.
The Courtenay, BC resident must attend a summer day camp with strangers, carry on in the summer youth entrepreneur project competition she and Lake began, and be a mother figure to younger brother Link when their mother temporarily relocates to Vancouver, where Lake is hospitalized.
Add to this Albie’s constant frustration at not being allowed to visit Lake, and you have all the ingredients of an engrossing initiation story. Young readers can not only empathize with the protagonist’s sorrow, alienation, and confusion; they can also learn about the collaboration, flexibility, and patience requisite for the growth from innocence to maturity.
The first-person narrative provides immediacy and depth. The backstory of Albie’s developing relationship with her cousin, as well as her love for her parents and brother, sets the reader up for Albie’s sense of helplessness and her consequent less-than-stellar behaviour.
A spiritual element that offers psychological insight into Albie’s motivations is also ably conveyed through the first-person narrative. By sneaking off to the now empty pool of Lake’s family, Albie finds herself able to commune with her absent cousin. Lake may be hours away from Vancouver Island, but she is very much a presence in Albie’s life. “Ghost Lake” urges Albie to win the competition—for the prize is a trip to Vancouver.
However, Albie’s quest is challenged by an internal obstacle. Her overwhelming guilt over not being with the actual Lake and making new friends whom she doesn’t inform about Lake’s situation causes Albie to rate herself a zero out of ten as a good cousin. Her self-blame also leads to a string of destructive behaviours that not only jeopardizes her new friendships and her position in both the day camp and the competition but also endangers her own safety and that of those closest to her.
Fortunately for Albie, she is surrounded by understanding friends and a supportive family. She emerges from her journey at once more independent and more open to support. Albie also becomes more accepting of uncertainty as she achieves a level of communion with the “real” Lake.
Through deft manipulation of a first-person narrative, Vancouver-based Stacey Matson (A Year in the Life of a Total and Complete Genius) creates an engaging initiation story about the evolving response of an adolescent to a grave threat to a loved one. Middle-grade readers are likely to find the balancing of the dark and the light in Albie and her circumstances makes Eleven Out of Ten a compelling read.
*
Ginny Ratsoy is Professor Emerita at Thompson Rivers University. Her scholarly publications have focused on Canadian fiction, theatre, small cities, third-age learning, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She currently spends her time reading, writing, travelling, and teaching. She plans to take a deeper look into bibliotherapy and other reading-related subjects in upcoming courses for the Kamloops Adult Learners Society. [Editor’s note: Ginny has reviewed recent books by Roz Nay, Kirstie Hudson and Monique Polak, Nikki Bergstresser, and S.E. Hume, Uma Krishnaswami, Kirsten Pendreigh, Annette LeBox, Leigh Joseph, Veronica Woodruff, and L. R. Wright for BCR.]
*
The British Columbia Review
Interim Editors: Trevor Marc Hughes (nonfiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction and poetry)
Publisher: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an online book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.
“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster