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

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"Libranos de aquel que nos domina en la miseria
Traenos tu reino de justicia e igualdad
Sopla como el viento la flor de la quebrada" -- Victor Jara, "Plegaria A Un Labrador"

" 'Victor?'
"Oh my god.
"How does she know my name?
"You know how when you're playing hide-and-seek, you hear your name called, and you can tell by the angle of the sound that it's aimed right at you, they found out right where you are, no matter how good you thought your hiding place was?
" 'Are you gonna come down, or should I come up?'
"My mind races. Wait a minute; are these the only two possible choices? Surely there must be more, like, couldn't i just lie still and pretend i'm not here? Maybe she would miraculously not come up the ladder, just do whatever it is she came here to do, take as long as she needs, i wouldn't watch, and then she would leave? Or, better still, she and her dog could head back down the trail right now. Or: she could shut her eyes and let me slip out of the cabin. Dog shut his eyes too. None of these seems actually reasonable, though, so i have to admit she has pretty much summed up the options available to both of us at the moment. It's on me. i have to answer. Still flat on my back but trying to sound casual, mature:
" 'i guess i'll come down.' "

How does the teenager named by his ex-hippie mother in honor of the martyred Chilean folk singer end up in such a position? Actually, he has been making like Thoreau and heading for the deep woods near his Vermont home. Taking advantage of his uncle's empty cabin in the middle of nowhere, Victor is testing out the admonition found in one of his mom's old books from her commune days that, "You have to be naked to write." He is also trying to stay under the radar (That's why the lower-case "i."), by employing the old Royal typewriter which has fortuitously come into his possession:

"Don't get me wrong. i like computers. There's not much i haven't tried on a computer. i've done digital editing. i download some music. i like to check out webcams, i've played most of the games some of my school friends have. i've done some stuff i wish i hadn't.
"But it's hard to shake the feeling that someone in there is watching me, tracking what i'm doing, writing, or thinking, 24/7. i know they do that. And even when i'm not online, just typing on a computer, i still feel connected to that whole world of plastic, electric circuitry, global corporations, shopping, advertising, pollution.
"So if i go way off the grid and punch these antique keys up in a cabin somewhere, i'll be connected, but it'll be a whole different world -- a world that never went away -- of iron and steel, mechanical type, printer's ink, paper, silence, the woods, water running in a stream."

Victor thinks nobody is watching him. But he is wrong. Rose Anna, the wonderful teen who interrupts his writing process and then comes to be the most important part of that process is a home-schooled daughter of another communal graduate. Victor's and Rose Anna's moms, in fact, have some vital history in common.

"A salamander scurries into flame to be destroyed. Imaginary creatures are trapped in birth on celluloid." -- Genesis

WRITE NAKED is the story of a boy and a girl; a cabin and a dog; a typewriter and an old fountain pen; intertwined stories, a shared journey, and the future of our planet.

"i stopped at the kitchen mirror on the way up. Did i look different? i mean, could anyone tell by looking at me what was going on? It's funny to think that what you're absolutely sure everyone can see may not show at all."

Hysterically funny and achingly honest, Victor's internal monologue is something that has got to be experienced. I'm always into learning something about the author of a book I've really enjoyed, but with his creating such an amazingly sensitive, innocent, (and terrific big brother) character like Victor, Peter Gould -- like his endearing protagonist -- is now someone whom I'm dying to know.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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