Stranded

by J. T. Dutton

Overview

My best friend, Katy, says a person with a sparkly two-part name like Kelly Louise should be guaranteed a little glamour and excitement and not be forced to move back to Mom's middle-of-nowhere hometown—now the center of a media frenzy since a farmer found an infant in his cornfield. (It just slipped from some mystery mother's body without anyone noticing.)

Bizzaro.

But Baby Grace shadows every hair flip, every wink, and is keeping me from losing my virginity, despite my dynamite new boots. Even Katy doesn't have any more good advice. The one boy around who rates anywhere near acceptable on the Maximum Man Scale only has eyes for my cousin, Natalie, who only has eyes for Jesus.

But Natalie has a secret.

Everyone is so busy burying the truth about Baby Grace, they can't see who they're burying alive.

Welcome to Heaven, Iowa.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061998430
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/08/2010
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Lexile:	970L (what's this?)
File size:	308 KB
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

J. T. Dutton is the author of Freaked, her debut novel. She was born in Connecticut, attended Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, and afterward spent time in Portland, Maine, and New York City before moving to Alaska to attend the University of Alaska Fairbanks MFA program. Her interests include backpacking, horseback riding, and yoga. She lives in eastern Ohio with her husband, her two children, and her cat.

Editorial Reviews

Kelly Louise’s narration…is wry and often hilarious (sometimes from her own mistaken but seemingly unshakable convictions about her worldly wisdom). The character portraits are particularly impressive in their originality and richness. Readers will relish both the entertaining narration and the inevitable ensuing arguments about the ethics of the situation.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Praise for FREAKED: “First-time author Dutton shows a sharp wit. A hoot.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Praise for FREAKED: “Fast, wry first-person commentary.” — ALA Booklist

Kelly Louise’s narration…is wry and often hilarious (sometimes from her own mistaken but seemingly unshakable convictions about her worldly wisdom). The character portraits are particularly impressive in their originality and richness. Readers will relish both the entertaining narration and the inevitable ensuing arguments about the ethics of the situation. — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Touches of wry humor punctuate Kelly Louise’s angry and guilt-ridden struggles with impulsivity, sexuality, religious hypocrisy and small-town life and its gossip. Kelly Louise’s fresh voice will change the way readers think about “good” girls. — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for FREAKED: “Fast, wry first-person commentary.

ALA Booklist

Praise for FREAKED:“First-time author Dutton shows a sharp wit. A hoot.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Gr 9 Up—Narrated in Kelly Louise's often-breezy, 15-year-old voice, this story is set into motion when a newborn is found dead in a cornfield. Kelly Louise and her mother move to rural Heaven, IA, to support the teen's grandmother and her deeply religious, uncommonly beautiful cousin. Natalie, it turns out, is the mother of Baby Grace, though it is never clear why she chooses to confide in her aunt. The girls have little in common: as Kelly Louise texts her hip friend back in Des Moines, Natalie makes signs for her youth group vigil in memory of the infant. The tone of the story varies from funny (rule-bound Nana is described as "the old S.S. Unpack This Second") to serious (a baby has died, after all) to descriptions of school events and musings on conservation and ecology. At times the story seems to absolve Natalie because someone took advantage of her and she blocked out the fact that she was pregnant, while at others she seems to be nursing a guilty conscience for breaking her virginity pledge. Equal in focus to the abandoned-baby story line is Kelly Louise's realistically portrayed relationship with a rock-band-wannabe neighbor and her loss of virginity while under the influence of pot. At the end of the novel, she sets into play events that lead to Natalie's arrest, although details are few as to how this affects Natalie or her family. Stranded might have readers where books such as Amy Efaw's After (Viking, 2009) have an audience.—Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

School Library Journal

Named for actress Tina Louise, Ginger on Gilligan's Island, Kelly Louise and her single mother are leaving Des Moines for her mother's hometown, Heaven, Iowa. But life is far from idyllic as the 15-year-old moves in with her cleaning-obsessed Nana, shares a bedroom with her Jesus-, kitten- and unicorn-loving cousin Natalie, undertakes the impossible task of finding a boyfriend mid-school year and becomes intrigued by the media frenzy surrounding Baby Grace, a newborn abandoned in a cornfield. Her edgy, first-person narration puts forward a drama queen in public, but she lays herself bare with self-deprecating humor in private. Occasional touches of wry humor, such as her partying classmates at Carrie Nation High School (named for the hatchet-wielding member of the Temperance Movement), punctuate Kelly Louise's angry and guilt-ridden struggles with impulsivity, sexuality, religious hypocrisy and small-town life and its gossip. When she learns the mystery of Baby Grace's murder, the teen must weigh her truthful convictions against the consequences of revealing family secrets. Kelly Louise's fresh voice will change the way readers think about "good" girls. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews