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Absolutely Normal Chaos
Mary Lou Finney is less than excited about her assignment to keep a journal over the summer. Boring! Then cousin Carl Ray comes to stay with her family, and what starts out as the dull dog days of summer quickly turns into the wildest roller coaster ride of all time. A wonderful story of contemporary teen life.
230 pages, Paperback
First published October 30, 1990
About the author
Sharon Creech
73 books3,410 followersI was born in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, and grew up there with my noisy and rowdy family: my parents (Ann and Arvel), my sister (Sandy), and my three brothers (Dennis, Doug and Tom).
For a fictional view of what it was like growing up in my family, see Absolutely Normal Chaos. (In that book, the brothers even have the same names as my own brothers.) Our house was not only full of us Creeches, but also full of friends and visiting relatives.
In the summer, we usually took a trip, all of us piled in a car and heading out to Wisconsin or Michigan or, once, to Idaho. We must have been a very noisy bunch, and I'm not sure how our parents put up with being cooped up with us in the car for those trips. The five-day trip out to Idaho when I was twelve had a powerful effect on me: what a huge and amazing country! I had no idea then that thirty-some years later, I would recreate that trip in a book called Walk Two Moons.
One other place we often visited was Quincy, Kentucky, where my cousins lived (and still live) on a beautiful farm, with hills and trees and swimming hole and barn and hayloft. We were outside running in those hills all day long, and at night we'd gather on the porch where more stories would be told. I loved Quincy so much that it has found its way into many of my books—transformed into Bybanks, Kentucky. Bybanks appears in Walk Two Moons, Chasing Redbird, and Bloomability. Bybanks also makes a brief appearance (by reference, but not by name) in The Wanderer.
When I was young, I wanted to be many things when I grew up: a painter, an ice skater, a singer, a teacher, and a reporter. It soon became apparent that I had little drawing talent, very limited tolerance for falling on ice, and absolutely no ability to stay on key while singing. I also soon learned that I would make a terrible reporter because when I didn't like the facts, I changed them. It was in college, when I took literature and writing courses, that I became intrigued by story-telling. Later, I was a teacher (high school English and writing) in England and in Switzerland. While teaching great literature, I learned so much about writing: about what makes a story interesting and about techniques of plot and characterization and point of view. I started out writing novels for adults (published as Sharon Rigg): The Recital and Nickel Malley were both written and published while I was living in England (these books were published in England only and are now out of print.) But the next book was Absolutely Normal Chaos, and ever since that book I have written mainly about young people. Walk Two Moons was the first of my books to be published in America. When it received the Newbery Medal, no one was more surprised than I was. I'm still a little bit in shock.
After Walk Two Moons came Chasing Redbird, Pleasing the Ghost, Bloomability, The Wanderer, and Fishing in the Air. I hope to be writing stories for a long, long time.
I am married to Lyle Rigg, who is the headmaster of The Pennington School in Pennington, New Jersey, and have two grown children, Rob and Karin. Being with my family is what I enjoy most. The next-best thing is writing stories.
© Sharon Creech
For a fictional view of what it was like growing up in my family, see Absolutely Normal Chaos. (In that book, the brothers even have the same names as my own brothers.) Our house was not only full of us Creeches, but also full of friends and visiting relatives.
In the summer, we usually took a trip, all of us piled in a car and heading out to Wisconsin or Michigan or, once, to Idaho. We must have been a very noisy bunch, and I'm not sure how our parents put up with being cooped up with us in the car for those trips. The five-day trip out to Idaho when I was twelve had a powerful effect on me: what a huge and amazing country! I had no idea then that thirty-some years later, I would recreate that trip in a book called Walk Two Moons.
One other place we often visited was Quincy, Kentucky, where my cousins lived (and still live) on a beautiful farm, with hills and trees and swimming hole and barn and hayloft. We were outside running in those hills all day long, and at night we'd gather on the porch where more stories would be told. I loved Quincy so much that it has found its way into many of my books—transformed into Bybanks, Kentucky. Bybanks appears in Walk Two Moons, Chasing Redbird, and Bloomability. Bybanks also makes a brief appearance (by reference, but not by name) in The Wanderer.
When I was young, I wanted to be many things when I grew up: a painter, an ice skater, a singer, a teacher, and a reporter. It soon became apparent that I had little drawing talent, very limited tolerance for falling on ice, and absolutely no ability to stay on key while singing. I also soon learned that I would make a terrible reporter because when I didn't like the facts, I changed them. It was in college, when I took literature and writing courses, that I became intrigued by story-telling. Later, I was a teacher (high school English and writing) in England and in Switzerland. While teaching great literature, I learned so much about writing: about what makes a story interesting and about techniques of plot and characterization and point of view. I started out writing novels for adults (published as Sharon Rigg): The Recital and Nickel Malley were both written and published while I was living in England (these books were published in England only and are now out of print.) But the next book was Absolutely Normal Chaos, and ever since that book I have written mainly about young people. Walk Two Moons was the first of my books to be published in America. When it received the Newbery Medal, no one was more surprised than I was. I'm still a little bit in shock.
After Walk Two Moons came Chasing Redbird, Pleasing the Ghost, Bloomability, The Wanderer, and Fishing in the Air. I hope to be writing stories for a long, long time.
I am married to Lyle Rigg, who is the headmaster of The Pennington School in Pennington, New Jersey, and have two grown children, Rob and Karin. Being with my family is what I enjoy most. The next-best thing is writing stories.
© Sharon Creech
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March 29, 2021
3,5 csillag
Azoknak, akik olvasták Sharon Creech Anya nélkül soha c. könyvét. Megvan az a jelenet, amikor az angoltanár behozza a nyári szünetre házi feladatnak feladott naplókat, és fel is olvas belőle? Hogy Mary Lou Finney, aki annyira nem hangsúlyos szereplő egyébként abban a könyvben 6 db füzetet írt tele? Na ez az a napló(sorozat). És fyi: ez a könyv volt előbb, nem az Anya nélkül soha.
Persze fogalmam sem volt, hogy ez Mary Lou naplója, csak valami Sharon Creech -könyvet akartam olvasni, mert van még jópár, és amúgy is rá akartam pihenni az Elfújta a szélre. Továbbra is nagyon szeretem ennek a nőnek a humorát, stílusát, és úgy mindent. Az különösen tetszik, hogy nagyon szerethetően viselkednek idiótán (vagy inkább csak emberien) a karakterek (na jó, inkább csak a főszereplőink, azaz jelenleg Mary Lou). Sokszor nevettem rajta hangosan, még úgy is, hogy néha egy picit untam – de ezt betudom annak, hogy nagyon nem én vagyok a célkorosztály.
Amit nagyon-nagyon értékeltem benne: hogy Mary Lou nyári kötelezője az Odüsszeia. Egyébként nem olvastam, csak részleteket, és a filmfeldolgozást sem bírtam végignézni. És biztos vagyok benne, hogy egy 13 évesnek ez pláne korai (én 15 voltam, amikor vettük órán). Ettől függetlenül olyan jó volt látni, hogy mi az, ami egy tinédzser gondolatait megragadhatja ebből a tőlünk már annyira idegen klasszikusból, illetve hogy szabad azt érezni egy kötelezővel kapcsolatban, hogy ez-mi-volt és ez-furcsa.
Összességében eddig ez talán a leggyengébb Creech -kötet, amit olvastam, de még ez is nagyon jó volt! Nagyon sok empátiát fejlesztő dolog van benne, és abszolút nem direkten. Megvan benne ugyanaz az amerikaiság, amit eddig is szinte mindig éreztem a műveiben, de hozzá lehet szokni. A vége talán egy kicsit sok volt, de ez tényleg nagyon ízlés (és életkor) dolga. Milyen kiadónak ajánlgassam a könyveit? Ilyenkor mindig az jut eszembe, hogy csodálatos, hogy ezeket én most elolvasgatom, de mondjuk majdan a gyerekemnek hogyan fogom felolvasni/kezébe adni, ha csak angolul léteznek?
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review