I have my very own hard copy of her debut YA novel SHADOWED SUMMER, but it has just come out in paperback this week, so if you aren't lucky enough to already own one, you can now run out and get a copy. Also, look for her newest work, THE VESPERTINE, due out in Spring of 2011.
KEEPING SECRETS
On first glance, a book about a teenaged girl trapped in the disaster that is her mother's hoarding, and a book about a girl haunted by a frustrated ghost don't seem to have much in common. But beneath the stacks of National Geographics and a borrowed heirloom witchboard, DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS and SHADOWED SUMMER have the same heart.
They're books about that moment when you realize that your parents had entire lives before you existed. That they have inner lives you can never know. And, shockingly, that know one will ever know *your* whole story, either.
The protagonists explore those shadow histories from the edges- in Lucy's case, in DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, she gets her glimpses from sorting through the hoarded, compacted belongings her mother has amassed over the years. Each box contains a memory, a slip of evidence, a hint of the life that made that object important (or unimportant) enough to keep.
For Iris in SHADOWED SUMMER, she dodges around the father who has the answers and won't share them, and picks through other people's stories instead. She asks the living and the dead alike, getting a shattered image of the past that she'll never be able to repair completely. But, like Lucy, Iris eventually discovers that the secrets and lies around you often lead to your own door.
On the surface, these books have nothing in common. But I find it fascinating that beneath the covers, they share their secrets- and just might reveal some of yours, too.
SHADOWED SUMMER
by Saundra Mitchell
In paperback June 8, 2010
Thanks so much to Saundra for dropping by the blog!
On this date: In 1942, Anne Frank received her diary.
3 comments:
Oh, thank you for this! I love the way you weaved together these storylines. I hadn't been aware of DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS before now, but I've ordered a copy for myself.
Wow, Dirty Little Secrets sounds like a book after my own heart! A large part of my childhood was spent cruising the streets for garage sales and picking through junk looking for treasure. It definitely sounds like an interesting read! (: Thanks Cynthia and Saundra!
Yes, Saundra is very smart and writes an awesome book ;)
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