The Vine: November 2, 2012
I remember a young-adult book where a girl (I think she was something of an outcast…aren’t they all in YA lit) painted theater sets in a way where they looked really crazy up close, but beautiful from far away. The mean theater teacher didn’t understand, however, so had them painted over with flat grey paint. The girl then learns to use stage lighting to create a similar effect.
I probably read this in the very late ’80s or early ’90s. I seriously remember nothing else, and Googling only brings me to lots of sites about high-school drama lighting.
Thanks!
Carla
*****
I have been fruitlessly looking for a book and I am hoping your readers can help me out. I read it as a young teenager (20-odd years ago…yeesh). I can’t remember much of it but what I do remember: the book was in the teenage section of the library so it was obviously aimed at teenagers. It was set in a sort of an alternate reality, maybe? A 14-year-old girl comes with her parents to this very jungle-y place. She meets a boy that can turn himself into a vine (or climbing plant of some kind) or he can make plants grow at will. At some stage they are swimming in a natural pool with a waterfall and they’re smooching and then they bonk. I remember the sex because it was the first time I had ever read a sex scene in a book. I know the sex part makes it seem like it was a trashy book but it wasn’t somehow. And I think the boy stows away in a airplane at some stage.
And that’s it, that’s all I have. Not a lot of details to go on, I know, but it’s been bugging me for years!
Many thanks,
Claire
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult
I know the first one! It’s Glass Slippers Give You Blisters by Mary Jane Auch.
I finally know one!
Carla, it’s Glass Slippers Give You Blisters, by Mary Jane Auch: http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Slippers-Give-You-Blisters/dp/0590435019
I remember reading it many times in the early 90s.
Yeah! Thank you!
I am totally stealing, “… and then they bonk” in my next book or movie review. Thanks for the laugh!
Carla, I recognized that part! I’m so glad you wrote in because now I’m gonna go reread the book. Yay Vine!
Wow, I still have this book! 15+ years on. Thanks for reminding me, Carla.
I must point out that it was the student director, a “mean girl”, who made the backdrop be painted over in battleship gray. That is such a frustrating scene. The injustice of it all!
I am stealing all of these fantastic plot points for my NaNo. Especially the bonking.
I remember that scene too! And being SO ANGRY on the girl’s behalf. Should go reread it.
Claire’s query sums up why I don’t write YA: I would never be able to resist larding the text with puns about the protagonist’s clingy boyfriend.
Sorry.