| The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: Rising Star Each month we offer a focus on a particular author or artist. Sometimes we use this space to discuss a rising new talent or an established star, but we also like to celebrate those who now live on only in the rich legacy of their books. See the archive for focus pieces from previous months. Kristen Randle |
A genius boy who hasn't spoken since he was two years old. A girl who must act as wife to her stepfather in order for him to pay for her retarded brother's care. A cult of kids who manage to stay silent in public, and keep their motives for staying silent a secret, for twelve years. This is the stuff of melodrama, no? Yes, it is. But in spite of the fact that one must suspend some disbelief, reading the novels of Kristen Randle is well worth the efforts involved in such suspension. It's like watching a pond skater go crashing through the ice, only to pull herself out, shake off the cold, and do a perfect triple axel. When Randle nails something, she really nails it, and you forgive any slips along the way.
Randle's gift is for taking ordinary teens with ordinary problems, pairing them up with fringe teens with serious problems, and letting things unfold. While the fringe teens are sometimes a bit too fringe in terms of the plot, the characters ring true--all of the kids, both ordinary and odd, are vulnerable and real. In The Only Alien on the Planet, Smitty, a victim of extreme abuse, is drawn out of his shell by Ginny, a normal kid with a close knit family. In Breaking Rank, Baby, a member of a mysterious Clan of kids who don't speak in school, is paired with Casey, a pretty, popular girl. In Slumming, Sam, who prides himself on his Mormon ideals and whose biggest conflict is getting in trouble for not taking out the trash, gets his world rocked by Tia, a punk girl with an abusive stepfather.
It may sound overdone, but what works in all of these novels is the way the characters, particularly the "normal" ones, deal with their new friends. They are cautious, scared; they take one step forward and then two back. The ordinary kids don't save their peers; rather, they are in many ways saved by them, as they take emotional risks and open themselves up in new ways. They move from a sense of superiority to the recognition that every person has strengths and vulnerabilities. Basically, they grow up. Young adult readers will appreciate the way boundaries are crossed, and they will respect Randle's refusal to simplify or stereotype characters. These novels are all about unraveling stereotypes (of both "good" and "bad" kids) and revealing the unique human beings underneath them.
Kristen Randle is a writer to watch out for--definitely a Rising Star. It's
rare for a writer to portray the emotional life of teens as well as she does--hitting
that mix of bravado and fear, confidence and self-doubt. As she continues to
write and to grow as a writer, her fiction will only get richer.
--Carolyn LaMontagne
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