Lizard Love

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Lizard Love (eBook) Pub. Date: 9/9/2009 Publisher: namelos
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Lizard Love Pub. Date: 4/28/2008 Publisher: Boyds Mills Press

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Overview
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Meet the Author

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Overview

Grace hates the where nature has been paved over and boys are starting to notice her. Then she discovers Spot, an iguana. LIZARD LOVE is a startling debut novel about a girl growing into a woman, kicking and screaming every step of the way.
HONORS
Best Children's Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education

Editorial Reviews

Kelli Cole

This is the story of a seventh-grade girl going through puberty and dealing with the changes in her life. Grace loves the outdoors and all of the animals at her grandparents' pond in the small country town of Mooresville. Her mother moves her to New York City, where Grace meets Walter, the son of a pet store owner. Walter gives Grace a lizard named Spot who proves to be Grace's comfort during this turbulent time in her life. Through Grace's eyes, we see her struggle with growing up, becoming a woman, and dealing with the fact that everything is changing for good. Female readers fifth grade and up will relate to Grace's troubles with puberty and will appreciate Grace's strange attachment to her animals and her own lizard love. Reviewer: Kelli Cole

Children's Literature

Grace is very unhappy living in New York City. She grew up in Mooresville, a small rural town and cannot stand all the concrete and metal in her new surroundings. She misses the bullfrogs, swallows, and snakes that lived around her grandparent's house, the grass and the gardens, but even among the tall buildings and gray sky, she finds a harbor—Fang and Claw, a pet store, specializing in reptiles. There, she meets Walter, his father, Pops, and Spot, the iguana. She enjoys her new refuge, but still longs for home. When she returns to Mooresville for the summer, however, Grace is not happy. Everything is changing and fast—and not only the town, but her own body as well. Grace does not like any of the transformations, especially her expanding chest, and when she returns to New York, she must resolve herself to either living in the past or accepting her new life and moving forward. With many captivating descriptions of reptiles and snakes, it is easy to see how Grace becomes enamored with them, and with the composed caretakers of Fang and Claw, Walter and Pops. For any girl who has hated growing into a woman, Grace leads the way in a realistic portrayal of the early teen years. Reviewer: Kathleen Foucart

More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9

Grace's story opens with a brief idyllic episode in her seventh summer spent with her grandparents in the rural Midwest. She wholly immerses herself in the natural beauty and wonder of her surroundings, beginning a lifelong love of frogs, lizards, and snakes. The narrative soon shifts forward to Grace's eighth-grade year in New York City, where her mother's graduate work and teaching have taken them. Grace's hatred of urban life and difficulty in adjusting to a school where she feels freakish intensify the pain of adolescence. She stumbles upon a pet shop called Fang and Claw, and soon she's helping Pops and his son, Walter, with the care of the marvelous creatures, including Spot, a gorgeous iguana that Grace adores on sight and takes home. A long-awaited summer return to Mooresville disappoints her: the countryside is being ruined by suburban sprawl, her grandparents are slowing down, and her body is betraying her with embarrassing developments. Upon returning to New York, she feels as alien in her own skin as the displaced tropical lizards and snakes she favors. Grace ultimately begins to shape her environment so she can thrive and to value those special people like Walter who appreciate her. Nicely characterized, showing keen awareness of the young teen experience, and written to reveal the reptilian world in colorful detail, the story is an obvious fit for animal lovers, particularly those who delight in the cold-blooded variety. All readers will come to understand Grace's fancy for these creatures even if they don't share her lizard love. A worthwhile choice for young folks shedding the skin of childhood.-Suzanne Gordon, Peachtree Ridge High School, Suwanee, GA

Kirkus Reviews

Grace loved running wild in her grandparent's woods, playing with frogs and marveling at snakes, until she moved to New York City and left childhood behind. New York's cement sidewalks and brick buildings depress her, as do other eighth graders, who laugh at her homemade reptile jean jacket. When she stumbles upon The Fang and Claw, a cozy pet shop that caters to amphibians and reptiles, she finds a refuge-and even a pet iguana named Spot. Townsend draws gorgeous portraits of scaly creatures, making their pupils, scents, behavior and coloring keenly familiar. Readers come to share Grace's appreciation for all things slithering, but few will understand how Grace can hug, kiss and sleep with Spot. Grace's fierce refusal to accept adolescence seems similarly off-kilter. Natural body changes absolutely repulse her; interactions with the opposite sex leave her spinning; cultivating human friendships is almost impossible. While readers warm up to Townsend's cold-blooded creatures, they never really warm up to Grace. (Fiction 11-14)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781932425345
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press
Publication date: 4/28/2008
Pages: 168
Sales rank: 1,237,990
Age range: 8 - 12 Years
Lexile: 750L (what's this?)
Product dimensions: 5.70 (w) x 8.30 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Wendy Townsend is a graduate of the Vermont College MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program.

Since 2004 she has lead the Summer Weekend Intensive Workshops in Writing for Children at Empire State College in New Paltz and has worked on independent studies with both undergrad and grad students at Empire State College.

In 1993 she coauthored and illustrated Iguanas: A Guide to Their Biology and Captive Care. After she finished her work on Iguanas, she knew that she wanted to write.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5

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Anonymous

Posted July 19, 2011

This looks like a good book.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Zombie_Veggie_Kitty

Posted April 9, 2011

Perfect for Strange Girls

This book is more directed for a female reader. It is a wonderful and inspiring read. It's especilly perfect for girls like me who aren't quite like the other girls. If you love those reptillian creatures this is a absolute must read. One of my favorite books.
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