By Karin Cook
What Girls Learn
by Karin Cook, is a novel about maturation and traveling the road of adolescence. Tilden, the main character is twelve, with a younger sister Elizabeth who is eleven. Together the girls learn heart break, humor and how to survive though life's contradictions.
Tilden's mother, Frances, falls in love with a man named Nick. The three person family is then forced to move up north from their small house into Nick's large home. Tilden is very upset with the fact that she is being forced to make new friends and leave the South. Novel shows Tilden's stride to become popular in the new school and how she must grow and become more independent when her mother spends her time with Nick. Suddenly, Tilden learns that she is no longer her mother's confidant, instead Nick shares in her mother's secrets.
Before long, Tilden's mother finds out that she has breast cancer and must have a mastectomy, and go through chemotherapy. Now, Tilden must be stronger than she ever has before. He uncle comes to visit because of her mother's illness. He now helps clean and cook around the house. In the evening Tilden and her uncle have time alone to talk. In these one on one conversations Tilden confronts her uncle about her father that left her and what he was like. She also confronts him about her mother's illness and if she will survive. Her uncle, stares back helplessly, for he does not know any answers to her curious questions. Although he is no help to answering her questions, he is able to strike a strong bond with Tilden.
In school, Tilden is chosen to be a spelling bee participant. Her uncle at night before she goes to be helps her study for the big day. He spells the letters on her back and recites the word after it is spelt. This allows Tilden to become closer to a male, than she ever has. She has never really had a male person present in her life before, because it had always been her and her sister living with her mother.
When Nick and her uncle enter the scene, Tilden disconnects her self emotionally and physically from the family. She no-longer feels important to her mother, and she feels as if she is last priority. When Tilden's mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Tilden feels as if there is no one to turn to, she is alone. Tilden cannot turn to her sister, for her sister is younger and depends on Tilden to be strong. Her sister becomes more rebellious because of her mother's absence, and gets into trouble when she consumes alcohol. She cannot go to her mother because she is ill and in the hospital. Tilden cannot go to Nick because she does not know him at all and she cannot go to her uncle because she doesn't know him that well, and every time she does confront him with questions he has no answer. Both Tilden and Elizabeth are forced into growing up quickly and on their own. Tilden is forced to find out answers on her own, such as what breast cancer and a tumor really are. Through the help of a dictionary and books Tilden finds her answers for the questions about her mother and her illness.