Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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Ellen Wittlinger has done it again!

Count me among the multitude of readers who have been impatiently awaiting the next young adult novel from the author who's extraordinary HARD LOVE (1999) was awarded a Printz Honor. The wait is just about over, and the new book is a delightful and stunning must-read for teens and anyone associated with young adult literature.

Meet Kenyon Baker:

"Consider me confused. Aren't there any other people on this planet like me? There never seems to be a place I fit in. Unless I'm alone in my darkroom, of course. But I don't think you can count it as fitting in if you're alone."

Meet Razzle Penney:

"She was as tall as me but even skinnier, and even though she was walking fast, her long arms and legs seemed to sort of swirl around her in this lazy way, like all the joints weren't connected up quite right. Her buzz cut hairdo and the black short shorts and tank top added to the vision of a leggy bug or a jellyfish swimming over to us."

We meet Kenyon, the last-born of relatively older parents, after he is transplanted from Boston to Cape Cod where his newly retired parents have bought a group of vacation rental cottages. He meets Razzle at the town dumps where she runs the Swap Shop (the recycling center).

In RAZZLE, as with HARD LOVE, the author writes in a seductively warm and gentle manner as she draws us into an important and entertaining story about growing up, first love, loyalty to yourself and others, friendship, prejudice, and dealing with your parents as you become yourself. The fashion in which Wittlinger can capture so many relevant themes in such a reader-friendly story firmly places her among today's great YA authors. Her characters are unusual, unpredictable, and unforgettable.

Furthermore, as was the case with HARD LOVE, the mother-child relationships are central to this story. It makes me wonder if, deep down, Wittlinger's greatest aspiration is to guide today's future mothers to an understanding of

how their behavior and beliefs will reverberate in the actions and reactions of their future children. Whether or not this is the author's intent, it will be the fortunate result for the perceptive teen reader.

Finally, this book offers another lovely view of Cape Cod. Despite my growing up on and near the lovely beaches of Long Island, I've nevertheless mourned for ages over never having gotten to see the Cape, where Dicey and the other Tillerman kids had grown up. I think that RAZZLE has pushed me over the edge in my resolve to experience it sooner or later.

Richie Partington
Richie's Picks
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