|
|
It’s Our
Prom Megan Tingley Books ISBN:
978-0-316-13158-2 Ages 12 and up |
|
Artistically,
I’ve always wanted to try writing a book with multiple narrators. Stretching
taut my artistic wings, I gave it a try with this book. Originally, I had
three narrators: Azure, Luke, and Radhika. Their
personal stories were intertwined around the main plot of organizing an
all-inclusive prom for their school. After I’d sold the manuscript to Little,
Brown Books for Young Readers (my home sweet home), my editor, Megan Tingley, called and said, “Julie, we’ve read the
manuscript over several times and we all agree that Radhika’s
story is less interesting than the other two.” I choked and gasped (maybe not
in that order). “Does that mean you think I should take out Radhika’s story?” I asked. Megan said, “I think it’d
improve the book.” She’d never demand that I do anything, but I’ve come to
trust her judgment. This was
very, very bad news. It meant I’d have to evaluate whether it was worth
trying to unbraid Radhika’s story from the other
two, or just start over completely. Even though it may seem more painful,
sometimes beginning from scratch turns out to be easier than cutting and
pasting. There wasn’t a deadline, but I did feel the story was current enough
that if I didn’t rewrite the book fast, it’d be historical fiction by the
time it was released. There’d
been stories in the news the last few years about gay teens who’d wanted to take their girlfriends or boyfriends to
their high school proms and were denied the right. In one case, you might recall,
the school board actually canceled the prom rather than let two lesbians go
together. Taking a
current event and expanding on it, in the novel, It’s Our Prom (So Deal With It), Azure and Luke, the two narrators, petition their administration to allow them to
put on an all-inclusive prom. They want everyone to feel welcomed, and to
make it affordable to all. It’s a Herculean task, as they come to find out.
But even more problematic is the fact that both Azure and Luke are planning
to ask the same person to prom. Yikes! I hope one
day we’ll see high school proms embrace every student. We should all have the
chance to look back on our prom pictures and shriek, “Oh, my God! Look at my
hair.” Love, |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Privacy Statement
Website Copyright © 2000 by Julie Anne Peters
All Rights Reserved