Graveyard Girl - Softcover

Lewis, Wendy A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0889952027 ISBN 13: 9780889952027

Publisher: Red Deer Press, 2002

Synopsis

In June of 1982 a group of high school students in the town of Lee re-enact the previous summer's glitzy royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Organized by their teachers, the group receives extensive coverage in the town newspaper and the school yearbook.

In this set of twelve linked short stories, each of the participants in the "Wedding of the Century" seeks out his or her own truth in the years that follow. We learn about the network of love, fear and intrigue that bind young people who shared this fairy-tale event. And we learn about the real-life demons they subsequently confront, the advantages they celebrate, the disadvantages they endure, and the temptations they face. For Tish, life is never the same after the tragic death of her best ex-friend Alex. Derek, the mock wedding's prince, ends up as a hockey star while Jewel, Diana in the mock wedding, has her own romance to play out with tougher consequences. And Naylor, who had the second-banana role of Prince Edward, meets up with an extraordinary stranger whose flight to freedom lifts Naylor from a hum-drum existence. The last word comes from the wry voice of Ginger - always the outsider - who snapped the mock royal photograph and who, years later, contemplates the lives of her one-time classmates from the vantage of the Lee town cemetery.

About this title

About the Author:

Wendy A. Lewis is a Red Deer Press author.

From Publishers Weekly:

While Lewis chooses a tenuous premise for her novel (an Anglophiliac geography teacher's staging of a reenactment of Princess Diana's nuptials), the characters are sympathetic. Set mostly in Canada, the book is broken into a series of stories, each narrated by one of the "mock royal wedding" participants. High school students who took part in the wedding narrate the first half, set in 1983, while the second half takes place 10 years later, with narrators who were preschool participants. Each character struggles with his or her challenges: Jewel has had a baby, and must deal with her mother's disapproval, and Kevin is watching his sister battle cancer. Ginger, who narrates the prologue and final chapter, set in 1999 (the reason for all these different dates is never made clear), was nicknamed the "Graveyard Girl" in high school because she slept with boys in the cemetery. Even as an adult, she is haunted by memories of her dark childhood, and mourns the loss of her own first love. Several of the characters manage their crises with supernatural assistance; for example, the new girl who tells Kevin that his sister will be okay may be an angel. Some readers may have a hard time understanding the mock royal wedding's significance or find some of the supernatural elements jarring or clich?d. However, those who make the leap will appreciate the tender moments, such as when Jewel's mother finds her daughter dancing with her baby, and embraces them both. Ages 12-up. (Feb.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Red Deer Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0889952027
• ISBN 13: 9780889952027
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176