Not a Chance

by Michelle Mulder

Overview

Dian has been coming to the Dominican Republic with her doctor parents for years. Now that she's thirteen, she had wanted to stay home in Canada, but instead she is helping her parents set up their clinic and looking forward to hanging out with her Dominican friend Aracely. When fourteen-year-old Aracely makes a shocking announcement—she is engaged to be married—Dian struggles to accept that Aracely has the right to choose her own destiny, even if it is very different from what Dian would choose for her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459802186
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	03/01/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
Lexile:	860L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Michelle Mulder is the founding author of and has written numerous titles in the Orca Footprints series including Pedal It!, Every Last Drop, Trash Talk and Home Sweet Neighborhood. They have also written several works of fiction including The Vegetable Museum and Not a Chance. Michelle lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Editorial Reviews

"There is an authenticity to Dian, caught in a web of moral dilemmas and attempting to navigate between the rigid cultural dictates of the village and the equally rigid viewpoints of her parents...Readers will empathize with Dian as she struggles to find her own voice and her own path towards social justice...Dian claims a different course than her parents and her actions may encourage readers to make change in the world themselves...Mulder has delivered a provocative book which will challenge young readers at home or in the classroom, giving vivid insight into complex cultural challenges we all must face in a global world."

Canadian Children's Book News

"Dian’s struggle with cultural differences makes for interesting reading...A quick read that may inspire some readers to reflect upon what Dian learns and apply it to their own lives."

Library Media Connection

"Mulder's provocative tale about a cultural clash avoids heavy didacticism with lively dialogue and carefully nuanced behavior for each of the believable characters. Readers will feel for Dian as she tries to establish her identity, engage her overbearingly politically correct parents, and begin a friendship with a Haitian boy that provokes a racist response from the community. It's a lot of growing up for one summer, but this engaging story intelligently takes on the matter of haves and have-nots."

Booklist

"A fine novel about clashing cultures. Dian's direct narration clearly establishes the complexity of life in Cucubano, and underlines the double-edged choices every character faces...'It would do us all good to quit trying to fix the world and actually enjoy it for once,' Dian tells her parents at one point. Mulder's thoughtful, engaging novel manages to do both."

The National Post

"The Dominican village in which the novel is rooted is well realized, and the characters do not feel one-dimensional. Dian...is well characterized and relatable. Not a Chance is a well-written and engaging novel."

CM Magazine

"Mulder's provocative tale about a cultural clash avoids heavy didacticism with lively dialogue and carefully nuanced behavior for each of the believable characters. Readers will feel for Dian as she tries to establish her identity, engage her overbearingly politically correct parents, and begin a friendship with a Haitian boy that provokes a racist response from the community. It's a lot of growing up for one summer, but this engaging story intelligently takes on the matter of haves and have-nots."

Booklist

Gr 5–8—Set in present-day Dominican Republic, Not a Chance explores the contrasts between traditional island-culture mores and Western ideals. Dian, a Canadian teen, and her family visit Cucubano, D.R. every summer, but this year she is appalled to learn that her closest friend in the Caribbean town will be married now that she is 15. She and her do-gooder parents had plans to provide Aracely an opportunity for higher education in North America, but Aracely would rather stay near her family. While the two girls are at odds, a friendship develops between Dian and a Haitian boy, a social taboo in this small village. Because of the community's racial prejudice, the teens' social standing and Aracely's future are threatened. The story moves swiftly with animated writing and plenty of dialogue. Readers will empathize with Dian as she exposes her parents' pretensions: "What's the point of having family meetings if no one wants to hear what I have to say?" Though overbearing, they don't just talk about their values, they devote their summers to providing free medical care. The Dominican characters are likewise complex, welcoming the Canadian visitors, but shunning dark-skinned immigrants. Cultural details and Spanish words are incorporated into the text. Complicated issues, including children's rights, Western ethnocentrism, and racism, are all illuminated in this story of cross-cultural friendship and respect. Readers will grow in understanding, along with Dian, who concludes, "It's about balancing the dancing with the doing.—Toby Rajput, National Louis University, Skokie, IL

School Library Journal

A Canadian teenager must decide if she knows what's best for her Dominican best friend. Every summer, Dian travels to the small Dominican Republic village of Cucubano with her doctor parents. Now 13, Dian would like to enjoy a "normal Canadian teenager" summer, but they drag her along again nonetheless. Once there, she discovers that her best friend, 14-year-old Aracely, is engaged. Dian cannot understand why Aracely would choose a typical village life over the chance to study to become a doctor in Canada. As a socially aware only child, Dian is a believably mature, introspective narrator whose fears for her friend feel justified. But when her disapproval threatens their friendship, readers will wrestle along with Dian as she decides whether to trust her friend or to be her savior. Dian's growth is succinctly chronicled as she evolves from a child struggling to form an identity apart from her parents ("parents like mine, who expect you to spend every waking moment saving the world") into a confident young woman ("I'm trying to help people, but I'm not raging at the world and refusing to enjoy life....It's about balancing"). Mulder's spare prose neither makes light of a delicate issue nor paints it with a broad brush. Quietly perceptive and provocative. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews