Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Sheridan Public Library | YA DeLint | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic De Lint, C. 2004 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
This ALA Best Book for Young Readers is now available in paperback. When Imogene and her family move to Newford, she quickly gets to know two very different people. Maxine is a good girl following a strict life plan. Adrian is a bit more unusual--he's a ghost who has a huge crush on Imogene.
Author Notes
Charles de Lint, an extraordinarily prolific writer of fantasy works, was born in the Netherlands in 1951. Due to his father's work as a surveyor, the family lived in many different places, including Canada, Turkey, and Lebanon. De Lint was influenced by many writers in the areas of mythology, folklore, and science fiction.
De Lint originally wanted to play Celtic music. He only began to write seriously to provide an artist friend with stories to illustrate. The combination of the success of his work, The Fane of the Grey Rose (which he later developed into the novel The Harp of the Grey Rose), the loss of his job in a record store, and the support of his wife, Mary Ann, helped encourage de Lint to pursue writing fulltime. After selling three novels in one year, his career soared and he has become a most successful fantasy writer.
De Lint's works include novels, novellas, short stories, chapbooks, and verse. He also publishes under the pseudonyms Wendelessen, Henri Cuiscard, and Jan Penalurick. He has received many awards, including the 2000 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection for Moonlight and Vines, the Ontario Library Association's White Pine Award, as well as the Great Lakes Great Books Award for his young adult novel The Blue Girl. His novel Widdershins won first place, Amazon.com Editors' Picks: Top 10 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2006. In 1988 he won Canadian SF/Fantasy Award, the Casper, now known as the Aurora for his novel Jack, the Giant Killer. Also, de Lint has been a judge for the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award and the Bram Stoker Award.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-This lively novel thoughtfully examines friendships that cross magical boundaries and explores how love can strengthen and save us. On her first day of school in a new town, Imogene meets Maxine, an outcast, and is targeted by a group of popular bullies. The two become friends despite their polar personalities; Imogene is bold and brash where Maxine is mousy and quiet. When Imogene notices a pale boy watching her, she asks about him and learns the story of Ghost-actually Adrian-another outcast who was harassed by cliques, died under mysterious circumstances a few years earlier, and now haunts the school. His only companions are a handful of amoral fairies. He convinces them to show themselves to Imogene, but this draws the soul-sucking anamithim to her, endangering her life and the people she loves. Adrian, Imogene, and Maxine alternate as narrators. Tied together as victims of both the magical world and of everyday tyrants, they are sympathetic characters who speak with sharp, snappy dialogue. As in Nina Kiriki Hoffman's A Stir of Bones (Viking, 2003), the otherworldly threat skillfully mirrors and enhances real-world concerns. This complicated story is made more intricate by the now/then time shifts between chapters. The two popular bullies are stereotypically flat, but the remaining characters are well drawn and delightful. Imogene's brutal choices about where to draw the line between self-protection and becoming like her tormentors are clearly depicted.-Sarah Couri, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
De Lint (Moonheart) tackles magic and the afterlife in a suburban high school setting in this inventive if somewhat convoluted tale. Imogene Yeck is new to Redding High, and with her piercings and goth clothes, she immediately gets branded ("Yuck," a play on her last name). She quickly befriends an outsider of another sort, geeky and thoughtful Maxine. Imogene begins seeing a "pale, nerdy guy-sort of like a tall Harry Potter... but gawkier and with a narrower face," called Ghost, according to the school's legend. Imogene and Maxine learn that this is the ghost of Adrian, a bullied kid who "either jumped or fell off the roof" some years before. Adrian, who admires Imogene (for standing up to the bullying football quarterback), inadvertently attracts the attention of "the darkness," also called "ghost- or soul-eaters." She learns of this in part from her childhood imaginary friend Pelly, now an ominous figure who is appearing in her dreams. Fairies factor into the story, as does a roving angel who tries to convince Adrian to give up his hold on the world and "move on." The book feels a bit strained, packed with one mythology too many. It may also be challenging to some readers at first: the early clever repartEe between Imogene and Maxime gives way to three different first-person narratives (Imogene's, Maxine's and Adrian's), told at two different periods in time ("Then" and "Now"). Fantasy-minded goth kids, though, will likely find it worth the effort. Ages 12-up. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
When seventeen-year-old Imogene moves with her mother and brother, she's determined to turn over a new leaf, and she resolves to help her new friend Maxine do the same. Imogene, Maxine, and the school ghost, Adrian, tell this supernatural story of unexpected friendship. The voices of the three protagonists are engaging from start to finish. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Readers always know what to expect in a de Lint fantasy: supple, sinuous writing in a contemporary setting laced with fantasy neatly hardwired in place. Set in de Lint's fictional locale of Newford, the first-person narration trades off among three protagonists: Imogene, Maxine, and Adrian. Imogene had been hoping for a fresh start at a new high school after a dangerous past that included sex, drugs, and gangs: she's smart, funny, and knows how to work the odds. Maxine, under her overprotective mother's thumb, follows the rules but longs for just a little freedom. She and Imogene bond right away when their school's head cheerleader marks them for persecution. Adrian is the nerdy ghost of a dork who died at school and can't quite leave yet. Fairies like the evil twins of the wee free men, Imogene's not so imaginary childhood friend Pelly, and a shadow world impinging on this one conjure up satisfying elements of Buffy the Vampire Slayer--there's even a helpful British librarian named Ms. Giles. And yes, the tattooed and pierced Imogene does turn spectacularly blue in one of the many page-turning plot points. (Fantasy. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 8-11. Fifteen-year-old Imogene is new at Redding High School, and she's determined not to repeat the mistakes she made at her old school, especially after she meets Maxine, the good-girl friend she's always wanted--and needed. Then Imogene and Maxine encounter Ghost, the school's resident lost soul, and the girls embark on an adventure that moves back and forth between the dangers of the unforgiving high-school environment and a terrifyingly evil netherworld of fairies, supernatural creatures, and anamithim--soul-eaters who are attracted to Imogene's strong personality and who threaten her safety. De Lint's strong characters and riveting plot lines will work for even the most skeptical reader, and Imogene and Maxine are wonderful examples of strong young women faced with a variety of problems that appear to defy solutions--that is, until the girls realize that the simplest, yet most difficult, answer is within their control: bravery in the face of a friend's danger. --Frances Bradburn Copyright 2004 Booklist