THE TRUTH COMMISSION
[TEEN] APRIL 2015
This was going to be the year Normandy Pale came into her own. The year she emerged from her older sister’s shadow—and Kiera, who became a best-selling graphic novelist before she even graduated from high school, casts a long one. But it hasn’t worked out that way, not quite. So Normandy turns to her art and writing, and the “truth commission” she and her friends have started to find out the secrets at their school. It’s a great idea, as far as it goes—until it leads straight back to Kiera, who has been hiding some pretty serious truths of her own. Susan Juby’s The Truth Commission: A story about easy truths, hard truths, and those things best left unsaid.
This dryly funny, knife-sharp novel, written as “creative nonfiction” by Normandy herself, features footnotes, illustrations, and a combination mystery/love story that will capture readers from the first page.
A Barnes and Noble Best Young Adult Book of 2015
A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2015
A Kirkus Best Teen Book of 2015
Winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Award for Children’s Literature
Nominated for the Amy Mathers Award
Nominated for the Ontario Library Association Red Maple Award
Nominated for the Canadian Library Association Best Young Adult Book for 2015
Finalist for the 2015 Cybils Award for Young Adult Fiction
A Quill and Quire Best Kids’ Book of the Year
A CBC Top Pick for Youth and Teens
A Stand-Out YA Book of 2015 (Bookshelves of Doom)
Best Book Riot Best Book of 2015 So Far!
An Amazon.com Best YA Books of 2015 So Far!
Praise for The Truth Commission
Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“With a deft hand and an open mind, Juby (the Alice trilogy) presents many layers of truth while evoking Normandy’s pain over being the subject of ridicule in her sister’s books. This is a sharp-edged portrait of a dysfunctional family with some thought-provoking ideas about what is real.”
Horn Book (Starred Review)
“Normandy’s wry, detailed observations range from funny to sweet to painfully honest, as she confronts dark secrets in her own family… Juby’s bright dialogue and vivid, appealing characters draw readers along as the three young artists navigate truths both light and dark, discovering themselves in the process.”
Kirkus (Starred Review)
“Hilarious, deliciously provocative and slyly thought-provoking, Juby’s welcome return is bound to ignite debate.”
School Library Journal (Starred Review)
“The narrative/book is smart, darkly funny, sad, and heartening as Normandy learns some hard truths, how to stand up for herself, and how to take charge of her own destiny. While there is no reconciliation in sight, there’s no doubt that the truth has set her free. A surprising, witty, and compulsive read.”
Shelf Awareness (Starred Review)
“Juby beautifully frames the questions at the heart of adolescence. When do you want to know the truth and when is it too much? How much do you present to the world and how much do you keep for yourself? … A smart, savvy YA novel about what constitutes the truth; its ideas will linger long after the last page.
Quill and Quire (Starred Review)
“The book, complete with bombshell ending that is messily realistic and totally satisfying, is one you can (and should) embrace.”
The Globe and Mail
“Susan Juby is one of our country’s great court jesters with her hilariously astute depictions of small-town life that always favour loving mockery over flippant derision…There is everything you would expect in a Juby novel: the bone-dry humour, the barrage of pop culture references so cool they border on hypothermic and the comfortable straddling of teen and adult fiction. But there is also a mystery surrounding Normandy’s sister that veers in an unexpectedly dark but fascinating direction. The best humour writers never settle for the expected – Juby is among them and this is her finest novel yet.”
Gayle Forman, best-selling author of If I Stay
“Susan Juby’s The Truth Commission knocked my socks off. You should read it!.”
Jaclyn Moriarty, author of The Year of My Secret Assignments and A Corner of White
“I absolutely loved The Truth Commission. Every page made me laugh aloud, while all the time the tears were creeping up on me. The characters were so real I wouldn’t be surprised if they knocked on my door right now. I hope they do; I want to spend more time with them.”
Susin Nielsen, author of The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen and We Are All Made of Molecules
“You know how we have terms like “Dickensian?” I vote that from here on in we should also have “Jubyesque,” to describe something particularly funny, offbeat and original. The Truth Commission is Juby at her best – I wanted to be at that school with those unique, flawed and utterly believable kids. It is a fantastic and highly original novel. I heart Susan Juby.”
Vancouver Sun
“a delight to read on every insightful, provocative, funny and poignant page… ”
VOYA
“Smart and witty, eclectic and engrossing, introspective and insightful, The Truth Commission is a creatively crafted treasure of a novel which will be deeply appreciated by readers who like their existentialism wrapped in practical reality.”
Kelly Jensen, Book Riot
“This is a funny — at times out-loud-laughter — and clever, as well as deep and thoughtful, look at relationships, about the intricacies of families, and about truth and creative truth telling.”
Booklist
“the story is clever, the characters appealing, and the theme is thought-provoking. And that’s the truth!”
Meg Cabot
“Susan Juby is a marvel. Wise, witty, and full of heart, her writing draws you in and won’t let go. And just when you think it can’t get any better, it does.”
Leila Roy, Bookshelves of Doom and Kirkus Reviews
“For me, my love for this book goes beyond the fun and the funny and the adorable and the sad; beyond the excellence of the family story and the friendship story and the sweetness of the romance and the quiet strength of Norm’s relationship with Ms. Fowler. It goes beyond the myriad of ways in which Norm and her friends change the lives of those they touch; beyond the huge cast of entirely three-dimensional characters; beyond the ruminations about the nature of truth and about gossip, about our feelings of entitlement toward other peoples’ private truths, about how asking a question can be a kindness, but sometimes, so can keeping your mouth shut. For me, at its core, the Big Truth of The Truth Commission is this: you get a whole lot more out of life when you set the ironic detachment aside, and start treating other people—and the world in general—with honesty, empathy, sensitivity, and love.”
BCCB
“There’s a lot of hard-won wisdom under the energetic humor here, and it’s a pleasure to see Normandy finally come into herself and trust her own truth.”
Miss Print
“The Truth Commission is a thoughtful, smart, and funny story that works on many different planes. What starts as a humorous and promising project for Normandy and her friends becomes much more in Juby’s expert hands in this meditation on subjectivity, consent and how telling the truth (or choosing not to) can change everything. Highly recommended.”
Reading Rants
“This wickedly sly, smart read could only come from the ever fertile brain of Canadian author Susan Juby. Full of funny footnotes and sardonic scribbles, this utterly original read is ripe pickings for fans of John Green, My So Called Life or Degrassi High. If you’re looking to fill your beach bag with intelligent laughs this summer, then this is the book for you! ”