I bought the book "The smell of other people's houses' by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock for my daughter - our bookworm. The school holiday is the time when she reads books wholesale, and she is able to read everything I suggest. I take advantage of this and buy or lend her books which are especially for teenagers as well as set books, so that we will have less work during the school year. The thing that intrigued me about this book was its remarkable title. Now that I have read it, I don't know who it is aimed at. Is it for teenagers or maybe for adults who want to understand their children? I think that it should be read first and foremost by those who don't even try to understand young people. The book presents the typical problems young people have in the difficult and inhospitable surroundings of beautiful Alaska, which, like in reality, partly have their roots in our adult life. They result from differences in our characters, and from a lack of empathy and communication.
Have you ever noticed that every home smells different? Our food, flowers, pets and cosmetics create a domestic smell which is most often associated with love and safety. However, there are also homes which have a different smell and leave young people with childhood memories connected with uncertainty, peril or threat. Longing for a home with a mum, clean sheets and love, fomented in particular by a different scent, strict rules and the lack of any feelings, teenagers feel the need to look for something new. Sometimes they find and fill the emptiness, but sometimes they happen upon a substitute, which when it disappears leaves a permanent mark and changes their life forever.
