All Things YA

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt, Front Street, 2006
ISBN: 978-1932425291

Plot Summary

“You are too young to marry, Keturah,” Lord Death’s rich voice reached Keturah’s ears, “And too young to die…Therefore, I will give you a boon: choose whom you will to die in your place so that you may live” (Leavitt, 2006, p. 15). And so the powerful, handsome Lord Death offers Keturah a choice. But instead of choosing a replacement she bargains with Lord Death—if she can find her true love in one day he will let her live. As Keturah desperately searches for her true love she learns of her village’s impending doom. Quickly she hatches a clever plan that will not only allow everyone to escape Lord Death’s clutches but live happily-ever-after as well. But what will happen when Keturah’s well-laid plan starts to unravel?

Critical Evaluation

Leavitt’s lyrical novel, Keturah and Lord Death, is fantasy at its finest. Told in first person, the story chronicles Keturah’s journey as she seeks to save herself and those she loves from Lord Death. Keturah’s is a bittersweet tale, almost autumnal in nature as she contemplates the inevitability of Lord Death’s arrivals, often before he is expected. “I have been in conversation with you perhaps all my life,” Keturah explains to Lord Death, “I was born into death…[i]t filled my mouth upon my first breath. I sucked it in, Grandmother says, and cried as if my heart were broken, and even my dead mother’s pap would not console me. My father searched you out to find my mother and died…[t]hen my grandfather died after I had lived long enough to love him (Leavitt, 2006, p. 14)”. After talking with her at some length, Lord Death takes pity on Keturah and allows her to strike a bargain with him—if she can find her true love by the end of the next day he will let her live.

After her first encounter with Lord Death, Keturah’s story could easily dissolve into light-hearted fluff, as she examines all the men in the village even having her two best friends offer up the men they desire if it will save Keturah from Lord Death. Leavitt could have turned her tale into a farcical one, chronicling a series of bad dates between Keturah and all her potential beaus but she notably does not. Instead, Leavitt chooses to focus the reader’s attention to the realities that plague Keturah and her fellow villagers. Keturah’s world is not an easy one nor is it filled with merriment and comical outings. Instead, Keturah and her village struggle to survive in a world where plague, death in childbirth, and farming accidents are realities. The men in her village are not particularly handsome, strong, or noble in character like so many found within fantasy novels. Instead they are ordinary folk—the choirmaster with a gloomy air and much too large nose, the tailor who makes fine clothing but neglects his children, and Ben Marshall who, while handsome, is bullied by his mother and much too frugal. Keturah’s world is also not filled with prosperous cottages with lovely flower gardens. Instead the villagers live among rats, poorly paved roads, and the ever-present fear of plague. Indeed Leavitt creates a fully realized world in Keturah and Lord Death that enhances the plot and themes in the novel considerably.

Leavitt’s plot is just as magnificent as the language and setting she employs. Keturah and Lord Death is the perfect blend of human interest and philosophical musings, adventure and romance, humor and melancholy. She refuses to adhere to the stale, mundane plots authors often use—girl meets boy, conflict drives boy and girl apart, boy and girl end up together. Instead, readers are constantly guessing who Keturah’s true love may be just as they are surprised at who lives, who dies, and who ends up married in the end. Keturah and Lord Death is a true delight to read as Leavitt deftly weaves romance and realism to form an irresistible narrative.

Reader’s Annotation

Keturah staves off Lord Death’s claim on her by weaving a continual, compelling story at their every meeting. But what sort of bargain will she have strike with him when the lives of those around her are threatened?

About the Author

Author of seven books and winner of multiple awards, Canadian author Martine Leavitt is known for her well-developed characters and eclectic storytelling. Leavitt’s books vary widely in subject matter from tales of gifted magic users to mysteries involving classical music and missing teens. She is a National Book Award Finalist as well as a Governor General’s Finalist and the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin award.

Martine Leavitt, mother of seven children and the grandmother of eleven, currently resides in Alberta Canada. When she is not writing she is busy teaching at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA program.

Websites referenced:

Doodletronics (2011, June 14). Martine Leavitt. Retrieved from: http://www.canscaip.org/?q=node/500

Literature Resource Center (2007, August 26). Cameron Dokey. Contemporary Authors Online.

Vermont College of Fine Arts (2011). Martine Leavitt. Retrieved from:

http://www.vermontcollege.edu/node/200

Genre

Fantasy, Historical fantasy, Romance

Winter's Child by Cameron Dokey

Winter’s Child by Cameron Dokey, Simon Pulse, 2009.
ISBN: 978-1416975601

Plot Summary

Best friends Grace and Kai’s hard lives are made brighter by the stories they share. One of their favorites is the tale of the Winter’s Child, a girl their own age who is doomed to wander the earth healing other people’s broken hearts until she finds someone to heal her own. Although Grace is the more flighty and adventurous of the two she dismisses the story as pure fantasy. Kai, however, is obsessed with the Winter’s Child and believes her to be real. When Grace wakes one morning to find Kai gone she immediately knows that he has followed after the Winter’s Child. Deeply pained by Kai’s abandonment, Grace begins her own journey in search of him and, along the way, comes to terms with her own deep longings and dreams.

Critical Evaluation

Winter’s Child by Cameron Dokey is one of the many retold fairy tales published by Simon & Schuster under the Once Upon a Time series. Most of the tales, including Winter’s Child, are mediocre with confusing plots and/or incomplete character development. Although Cameron Dokey is one of the better, perhaps best, authors in the series, Winter’s Child sadly falls short of what it could be. The tale starts off well enough. Although Grace and Kai grow up as neighbors and best friends they are clearly two different entities, each with their own passions and dreams. Unlike the original tale, Kai does not turn mean and abandon Grace for the Winter’s Child (or Snow Queen as she is called in the original) rather he is provoked by Grace’s thoughtlessness. The Snow Queen herself is reimagined in Dokey’s tale to be a girl the same age as both Grace and Kai. Instead of being wicked, she is simply looking for the right person to heal her heart. In fact, the Winter’s Child is the best part of Dokey’s tale. While the initial characterization in Winter’s Child is intriguing and well-written, it cannot make up for the plot holes and incomplete characters found in the latter half of the novel.

When Kai follows after the Winter’s Child, Grace quickly realizes that she has behaved poorly towards Kai and begins her own journey. One of the most intriguing and poorly developed characters Grace meets is an elderly woman who doesn’t even have a name as Grace simply refers to her as the old woman. This woman saves Grace from drowning, promising her that she is safe and can stay with her as long as she wants. It quickly becomes apparent that the elderly woman’s intentions are sinister as she does not allow Grace to leave her cottage. “There was something about the way the old woman posed [her]…questions that alarmed me,” Grace recalls, “The only protection I could give myself was to hold my tongue” (Dokey, 2009, 143). When Grace realizes that the old woman’s love is making her a prisoner, something that she feared Kai would do to her himself, she sees the cottage as it actually is—a decrepit, old shack. This, of course, leads readers to believe that the old woman is, in fact, a witch who has bespelled her cottage as a way to entrap young girls. When the old woman learns of Grace’s escape she is furious and sends a flock of crows after her. Of course, Grace escapes aided by sunflowers and her pet hawk and readers never seen the old woman/witch again. While it is clear why the witch is included in the story as this is how Grace realizes that Kai’s love for her is quite different than what she originally supposed it to be, readers are left with lingering questions. Why did the witch seek to entrap Grace? Is the witch truly evil or simply lonely?

To be fair, the original tale by Hans Christian Anderson sheds little light on the subject. In Anderson’s tale Grace (or Gerda as he names her) is also rescued by a witch who longs to keep her as her very own. Anderson’s witch, however, is more kindly than Dokey’s. “ ‘I have long been wishing for a dear little maiden like you…and now you must stay with me, and see how happily we shall live together’” (Heiner, 3rd story para 5). And when the witch realizes that the roses in her flower garden will remind little Gerda of her lost home she makes them disappear fearing Gerda will run away (Heiner, 3^rd story para 5). Indeed, Anderson writes that although “the old woman could conjure…she was not a wicked witch; she conjured only a little for her own amusement, and now, because she wanted to keep Gerda” (Heiner, 3^rd story para 5). In fact, when little Gerda leaves the witch’s house the witch does not even try to stop her. So what are readers to make of Dokey’s reimagined witch? It seems a shame that Dokey did not take the opportunity to flesh out the witch’s character like she did with Grace, Kai, and the Snow Queen, instead leaving readers to wonder about the witch’s motivations.

The witch’s incomplete story is not the only flaw in Dokey’s tale; she also employs a deus ex machina at the end of her story in order to ensure a happy ending for all. I cannot elaborate on this point without spoiling the ending but suffice it to say that everyone receives a happy, and very improbable, finish to their tale. Overall, Winter’s Child is a haphazard novel. It is clear Dokey is a skilled author as she creates a well-rounded, complex character in her Winter’s Child and yet she cannot seem to carry this skill over into her creation of other characters. I can only hope that any subsequent tales she crafts have better developed characters and more polished endings.

Heiner, H.A. (2007, June 30). The Annotated Snow Queen [Web log] Retrieved from http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/snowqueen/index.html

Reader’s Annotation

Graceful and ageless, the Winter’s Child is cursed to heal the hearts of others until she can find someone to heal her own. When Kai seeks to help the supposedly fictional Winter’s Child will his best friend Grace follow him or abandon their friendship forever?

About the Author

Growing up in a family of authors, it’s no wonder that Cameron Dokey chose to become one. "I've always wanted to be a writer,” Dokey remarked in an interview with Contemporary Authors, “even though I haven't always known what I wanted to write”. As a child, Dokey observed her father who would write for two hours every evening. “I began to realize that my father was doing something special,” she explained, “Once I'd realized that, the certainty began to grow upon me that, someday, I would be a writer, too”. Initially Dokey tried her hand at acting, secretarial and retail work but soon found herself working for the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington as an exhibit writer. As an exhibit writer she began to explore different types of writing which led her to become the author she is today. Dokey’s works span several genres including horror, historical fiction, and fantasy. She is perhaps best known for her reworked fairy tales such as The Storyteller’s Daughter (a retelling of the Arabian Nights) and Beauty Sleep (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty).

Currently, Dokey has composed over twenty novels and short stories for young adults and hopes to pen more. Some of the projects she wishes to pursue include a novel for older teens, a picture book, and a cookbook in honor of her mother who died before Dokey became a full-time author. When not writing, Dokey enjoys spending time with her husband and four cats.

All quotes from:

Literature Resource Center (2005, June 15). Cameron Dokey. Contemporary Authors Online.

Additional information gleaned from:

Cameron Dokey (2011, June 12). Retrieved June 15, 2011 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameron_Dokey

Genre

Fantasy, Retold fairy tales

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Sold by Patricia McCormick, Hyperion, 2006.
ISBN: 978-078685171-3

Plot Summary

Although extremely poor, thirteen-year-old Lakshimi is not all that different from the other girls in her village. She dreams about her future, giggles with her friend and studies hard in school. While her stepfather is negligent and sometimes abusive she appreciates the loving relationship she has with her mother and hopes for a better life. One day Lakshimi’s world is shattered when her stepfather sells her to a woman who promises to help her become a maid. Passed from person to person Lakshimi soon finds that she has been sold to a brothel and, through the use of drugs, is forced to daily prostitute herself. Her madam, Auntie Mumtaz, promises that as soon as Lakshimi has paid her debt she is free to go. Although part of Lakshimi suspects that Mumtaz is lying she lives continually in hope that she will one day be free. But when she formulates a plan that may allow her to escape will she be able to muster the courage it takes to leave?

Critical Evaluation

Although it is admirable that Patricia McCormick brings to light an issue that the public is often ignorant of (particularly as it relates to American child prostitution), the true gift McCormick gives readers is her detailed, sensitive approach. While readers are rightly outraged and disgusted by Lakshimi’s madam, customers, and stepfather, McCormick refuses to paint them in broad strokes. For example, what are readers to make of the customer that, while still having sex with Lakshimi, does so in a respectful manner? In fact, at the end of the encounter Lakshimi herself says, “Harish [her friend] had taught me how to say thank you in his language, but it seemed a paltry word for my debt to this man” (p. 177). Another difficult character to decipher is the horrible madam, Auntie Mumtaz. While she is clearly a vile character that cheats her charges and involves herself rape and torture readers are forced to question her motives. For example, Shilpa, one of the girls working alongside Lakshimi, stays in the brothel out of her own free will because prostitution is her family’s trade (p. 167). Indeed, Shilpa is often drunk because her mother gave her alcohol when she was young to ease her child’s pain (p. 172). Perhaps Auntie Mumtaz is a grown-up version of Shilpa. Even Lakshimi’s stepfather who sold her into prostitution cannot be fully blamed. As Lakshimi’s mother says they are “lucky to have a man at all… [e]ven a man who gambles away what little we have on a fancy hat and a new coat” (p. 8, 38). Later on in the novel Lakshimi observes a thirteen year old girl being shamed and stoned on the streets for trying to run away from her elderly husband (p. 85). If this is the culture that Lakshimi grows up in is it any wonder that her stepfather casually sells her into prostitution in order to afford more drink and clothing? In fact, in her extensive research for the novel, McCormick traveled to India and discovered the horrifying story of a man who sold his fiancée into prostitution in order to buy a motorcycle (1). Although he was in jail, he was unconcerned as he knew the authorities would soon set him free (1). With a story such as this, it is clear that the rest of McCormick’s tale is equally plausible.

Not only are Patricia McCormick’s details well researched lending Lakshimi a credible voice, the author’s use of free verse emphasizes the horrors endured and the hope of escape. Sold reads as part poetry, part diary. Readers can imagine Sold’s collections of poems residing in Lakshimi’s well-worn diary that contains her sums and learned vocabulary. The free verse format also forces readers to concentrate on Lakshimi’s abuse as there is little room for extraneous detail in short free verse form. Between McCormick’s complex characters, well-researched facts, and haunting poetic form it is easy to see why Sold garnered such high critical praise and the honor of being a National Book Award Finalist.

(1) Rochman, H. (2006, September 15). Daughters for sale. Booklist 103(2), 54.

Reader’s Annotation

While some teenagers are lucky enough to go to school, get married and start a family Lakshmi is sold and forced into prostitution at the age of thirteen.

About the Author

Patricia McCormick’s four novels have garnered her high praise within the young adult community along with numerous awards. In addressing difficult (and often taboo) subjects such as cutting, child prostitution, the Iraq war, and drug use, McCormick gives disenfranchised youth a voice.

McCormick was not always a novelist (indeed her first book only appeared in 2000). Initially she was a journalist who worked at a variety of companies such as The New York Times, Parents magazine, and Reader’s Digest. She was in turn an entertainment columnist, an editor and even a teacher. Her teaching career took her a school in Queens, New York as well as prestigious Columbia University. She currently lives in New York with her husband, two children and two cats.

Information gleaned from Patricia McCormick’s website:

http://www.pattymccormick.com/index.php?mode=objectlist&section_id=111&object_id=166

Genre

Fiction-in-verse, Realistic Fiction