Mechele R. Dillard's Blog
Posted by Mechele R. Dillard
Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia by Brent Hartinger
Starscape, May 2007
Ages 9-12
Do you ever wonder where your dreams are formed? Are they bits and pieces of your actual experiences, maybe, just thrown together as you sleep? Or, perhaps, they are the part of your mind you don’t have the courage to access in your waking life? Or, really, could dreams be just harmless, random images popping around your brain as the remainder of your body rests? Author Brent Hartinger lets us in on his theory of dream generation with his first foray into the realm of fantasy, Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia.
Eleven-year-old Julie is having nightmares. It’s bad enough Julie’s waking life is a nightmare—her parents are constantly fighting, putting her right in the middle and pulling her in half as they try to destroy each other. Now, she is having nightmares so horrible, so graphic, she doesn’t even get a break from her daytime life when she sleeps. But, what can she do? She has no control over her dreams, right?
Wrong.
Hartinger explores the duality of personalities in the characters of Julie and Vivian, the actress who “plays” Julie in her dreams. His inventive storyline challenges friendships, questions the reality of reality, and investigates the truth of love—old, lost, and newly found. But, he does this on a level that kids and tweens can understand, in the context of a fantastic psychological thriller to which we can all relate: What if I could actually become a part of my dreams?
Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia is an excellent entry into tweener thriller fantasy; Hartinger has another success on his hands!
Posted by Mechele R. Dillard
Beauty Shop for Rent by Laura Bowers. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2007.
Some people believe that life has been served to them on a paper plate and accept their fate without question; others, like Abbey Garner, know that determination and hard work can turn that plate from paper to silver, as long as one has a plan.
Of course, fourteen-year-old Abbey doesn’t know everything about having a plan in the real world. Things don’t always roll along as we expect. In spite of her long-absent mother’s claims, all men are not awaiting the opportunity to victimize women. Money is not the answer to every problem. Families come in all shapes and sizes. And, sometimes negative situations can actually be the jumping-off point of our happiness, if we’ll just keep an open mind. No, young Abbey is not aware of all of these things but, luckily, the wise women of Polly’s Parlor are.
Spending their days in this conversation-filled beauty shop in small-town America, the Gray Widows—Abbey’s feisty Granny Po and her colorful friends—and the new owner of Polly’s Parlor, Gena Hopkins, bring humor, wisdom, compassion and structure to Abbey’s life. Along the way she learns a few hard truths about the world, including the tough lesson that even though life is not always fair, the behavior of others is not an excuse for Abbey’s own actions. Eventually, she will have to grow up and look at the world and the people in it—even the people she thinks she loves and hates the most—for what and who they really are.
Author Laura Bowers sets this story among the ancient hairdryers and outdated styles of Polly’s Parlor, and uses generation gaps to great effect in this fresh, spirited tale of a young girl trying to find security in a world she doesn’t yet understand. Can money be the key to long-term safety and happiness? Or, will Abbey find that her plans must be altered to include the desires of the heart, as well?
Read the book and find out—I did, and I absolutely was not disappointed!
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For more information about author Laura Bowers, check out my interview with this Maryland author, wife, mother, and horsewoman, published right here in Teen Fiction at Suite101.com!
Posted by Mechele R. Dillard
Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2007.
Vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters, oh my! This gothic fantasy—the first by prolific author Cynthia Leitich Smith—has everything, including mystery, romance, thrills, and moments that will have the reader catching her breath with surprise, fear, suspense and, occasionally, risking a sigh of relief.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I began to read Tantalize (Candlewick Press, 2007). Bram Stoker? Anne Rice? Buffy? But, no, none of the above—the talented Smith supplies her own unique voice and gives her version of human vs. nonhuman—well, nonhuman, partially human, and undead human—a rich, passionate color of its own.
Sanguini’s: A Very Rare Restaurant is the hub of the action, serving menus for both “predator” (“chilled baby squirrels, simmered in orange brandy, bathed in honey cream sauce” (p. 173)) and “prey” (“roasted tomato and wild mushroom stew in red wine sauce and vegetable stock” (p. 172)). Werepeople, shape-shifters and, of course, vampires are everywhere during the nightly dinner rush, although only a few are the real thing. But, when people begin to die, it is imperative that seventeen-year-old restaurateur Quincie discover just who is who—or what.
Smith does an excellent job of drawing readers into the pages of her imagination. Every detail is precise and thorough, without becoming heavy-handed or causing the pace to drag. Smith offers just enough to keep her readers coming back for seconds, thirds, fourths …. And, when the last page is inevitably reached, one is left satisfied, yet hungering for more.
Smith is known for her contemporary multicultural writings, and I suppose Tantalize is about as “multicultural” as it gets. But her first foray into the goth aspect of fantasy is, without a doubt, a winner and, I hope, just a taste of courses yet to be served.
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For more about Cynthia Leitich Smith and Tantalize, check out my interview with her, right here on Teen Fiction at Suite101.com.
Enter curious!
Posted by Mechele R. Dillard
Mystery abounds in this intriguing fantasy from Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner Dia Calhoun!
Phoenix Dance loves nothing more than creating shoes. And, when she secures an apprenticeship with the Shoemaker to the Royal Household, she is sure her dreams are coming true. But, suddenly, the princesses begin destroying their shoes overnight, night after night and, eventually, a mystery begins to reveal itself: The shoes are not inferior; the princesses are simply dancing them to shreds each night. But, how?
The question of the princesses’ shoes is not the only mystery Phoenix Dance is trying to unravel, however. Phoenix suffers from the Illness of the Two Kingdoms: the Kingdom of Brilliance and the Kingdom of Darkness. She has peace for short periods of time, but much of her life is spent bouncing between the overwhelming rush of energy found in the Kingdom of Brilliance and the crushing despair of the Kingdom of Darkness. Why this happens—and how she can possibly find a balance between the two extremes—is a mystery Phoenix realizes she must solve in order to have any chance for happiness.
Phoenix Dance suffers from Bipolar II Disorder, as author Dia Calhoun explains in her Author’s Note. Calhoun herself deals with the same disorder, and had long been seeking a suitable vehicle to explain the highs and lows of the affliction when she reread “Twelve Dancing Princesses,” by the Brothers Grimm. “Surely princesses who danced so hard each night that they wore out their shoes were in a manic state, just like the people who have bipolar disorder?” (p. 272) Calhoun asked herself. And, The Phoenix Dance (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005) was conceived.
It is difficult to bring such a somber lesson to a novel, YAL or otherwise, much less do it in a compelling and entertaining fashion, but Calhoun does it well. As Phoenix struggles with her illness, slipping from one “kingdom” to the next, the reader cannot help but feel compassion, not only for Phoenix, but for those around the young apprentice.
So, does Phoenix find that balance she so desperately needs? Does she live her dream of making shoes? And, of course, does she finally discover how the princesses are dancing their shoes to destruction each night?
Read the book!
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To learn more about Dia Calhoun, read my interview with her right here on Teen Fiction at Suite101.com!
Posted by Mechele R. Dillard
On Pointe by Lorie Ann Grover. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2004.
As a child, did you have a dream? Did you believe, with all your being, that if you worked hard enough—if you really devoted your heart, soul, mind, and body—you could obtain any goal you set for yourself? And, did you think that, once traveling along this premeditated path to success, any deviations could only be considered failures?
City Ballet Company is the dream for Clare, who has been dancing for as long as she can remember. It seems that she has never had a life without this expectation of becoming a dancer, and now, this summer, she is almost there—or is she? After 10 years of lessons, bloody feet, oozing blisters, and hundreds of pairs of toe shoes, Clare is getting taller, and taller, and still taller. Her body doesn’t seem to understand that ballet dancers are not tall—not the girls, anyway. Her mother is short; why didn’t her body mimic her mother instead of her father?
On Pointe is a novel en verse, its lyrical style flowing easily, gracefully, much as the classical dancer Clare so hopes to become. But, within this beautiful language, the author asks questions which need to be raised: Are the sacrifices required to reach one’s dream—the physical pain, the emotional toil, the hardship on families, and the destructive effect on relationships—are they often too much? Have we failed as human beings if our childhood dreams do not equal our adult realities? And, is success in the eyes of society more important than happiness within our own hearts?
Lorie Ann Grover weaves a simple yet powerful choreography of words with On Pointe, offering wisdom gleaned from personal heartbreak, along with a comforting shoulder of empathy—a melodic voice of support, reason, and guidance for those willing to consider that true achievement requires the growth of our minds, spirits, hearts, and souls, as well as that of our bodies.
