Nosy Parker by Lesley Crewe [Family Reads]

Why we chose Lesley Parker’s Nosy Parker

Dad’s book discovery process often goes as follows:

1. Read a review in the local paper
2. Add book to Goodreads to-read shelf
   • Generally, he looks for books from different genres of fiction
3. Find said book available to check out via Libby

This was the process followed for discovering Nosy Parker. After he finished reading the book, he suggested I read it as well for Family Reads. The cover made me a little 🤨 but I liked the idea of reading some Canadian historical fiction, so when Dad recommended the story, he buoyed my expectations.

The Cover

Dad thought the cover looked like a sun but noted that one doesn’t think of the cover often when reading an ebook. I had a physical copy and kept noticing the ‘egg’ staring back at me. The review that prompted Dad to add the book to his TBR concludes with “The only thing that seems out of place is the cartoony cover, which does nothing to suggest how real and sincere and eloquent Audrey is, or how moving her story proves to be.” Goodreads shows this other cover (pictured right) which better reflects the book’s interior.

Blurb

It’s 1967 in Montreal, the Expo is in full swing, and Audrey Parker has just moved with her dad to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, a whole new neighbourhood full of different kinds of people to spy on. Audrey is a lot of articulate, disarming, forthright. And, as her father reminds her often, indecently nosy. Audrey scribbles every observation down in her notebooks — from which foods her new teacher eats for lunch, to how blue the water is in Greece, to what time the one-legged man across the street gets home. She is certain she will soon root out a murderer or uncover a mystery. But there’s only one mystery that really matters to her mother. Who was she? How did she die? Why won’t her father ever talk about her? Over a year of Audrey’s life, we bike with her through the streets of NDG, encountering stray animals, free-range kids, and adults both viciously cruel and wonderful. And we walk with Audrey across the threshold from childhood to adolescence, where she will discover the truth about her mother.

Goodreads

Our Discussion 💬

Audrey

Audrey narrates the story in first person. Dad doesn’t usually like first person, and I don’t usually either (at least, in middle grade, for sure). But we didn’t mind it here because Audrey has a great voice and isn’t too precocious, annoying, mopy, or any other of those negative adjectives you may apply to a seventh grader written for adults. The Nosy in the title made me cautious – was Audrey going to be nosy in a pesky, irritating way? Turns out, no. Her being nosy wasn’t a huge part of the story but ended up being a cute way to frame her personality. Audrey has a great sense of (dry, at times) humour that shines through in her commentary, observations, and dialogue with other characters.

Plot

Overall, the story is pretty chill. While it’s comprised of vignettes through one year of Audrey’s life, we liked that they weren’t too short or shallow. Each vignette focuses on a bigger episode and goes in depth, and often the effects of one episode carry throughout the year. The Girl Guides arc made an impression on us, with Dad and I both having grown up in Scouts/Guides. I admired that Audrey didn’t really like Girl Guides but tried to stick it out for a few different reasons. Is Girl Guides still a big thing? I feel like it was more so when I was a kid, but now I’m old and don’t know anymore. Anyway, it was nice to read and reminiscen about that.

We thought the storyline surrounding the mystery of Audrey’s mom was done quite well. We were intrigued to learn about her past, but it wasn’t constantly looming over the story and making us feel like, “OKAY when do we finally find out!!?” We were quite satisfied with the pacing of the story (which we both read over a few weekends at the lake). I didn’t really care for the extended epilogue. I found it TMI on one hand, but on the other hand, it was kind of nice hearing what Audrey got up to throughout the rest of her life.

One critique I had was that I would have liked an episode set at Expo 67. Audrey does attend with her dad and aunt, but the experience receives just a one page summary. Dad and I both enjoyed the historical Montreal setting, as Audrey grows up in a working class part of town. Nosy Parker is really a slice of life story. While the later half focused a lot on Audrey’s role in the school play and and her discoveries about her mother, the majority of the story is focused on character and community in a broader sense.

Characters

We liked all the different characters. Most of them were kind, if flawed in their own way. I appreciated reading about the different experiences Audrey has with her friends. For example, the conflict with Jane when Audrey gets a lead role in the school play. Even some minor characters (I’m looking at you, five year old Avi who walks the dog all the time) shine in their brief page time. Most notably, the story features several different mother figures who impact and support Audrey in a lovely way.

Final Thoughts 💭

I gave this book ★★★½ and Dad gave it ★★★★½. A great summer read, check out Nosy Parker if you enjoy historical stories that celebrate the strength of community, or if you like stories about girls growing into themselves.

Further Reading 📰

🍂 Read an excerpt
🍂 Author website
🍂 Interview @ Book Time
🍂 Related: The last book Dad and I read for Family Reads is actually similar to this in some ways! Frying Plantain is also about a girl growing up in a Canadian city and is written in “twelve interconnected stories”.

Do you have any favourite historical stories about girlhood?
What’s an urban setting you enjoy reading about?