Enter a zip code
(Paperback - Reprint)
Reader Rating: (140 ratings)
Detailed Rating: "Just for Fun" See All
| More Formats | Online Price |
|---|---|
| Paperback | $16.95 |
Left on her own when her family dies in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past. Struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she'd once been as she inks darkness into her skin. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green can relearn the lessons of love and begin to heal enough to tell her story.
Haunted by grief and by her past after losing her family in a fire, fifteen-year-old Green retreats into her ruined garden as she struggles to survive emotionally and physically on her own.
A shy 15-year-old girl is left behind one day when her family goes into the city and perishes in a cataclysmic fire. In a boxed review, PW described the novel as "a post-apocalyptic fairy tale leavened with hope." Ages 11-up. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
More Reviews and RecommendationsIn a prolific career that began with early writings in the American Review, Alice Hoffman has expanded and developed the idea of family and community -- the forces that bind it together and the forces that drive it apart -- with understated and elegant prose and powerful and complex characters.
More About the AuthorReader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings
June 20, 2009: I read this book in about 2 hours it was a good book a short story but a book about trials i would reccomend this book to any one open to read it a ver good bok if you want somthing to do
Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings
June 17, 2009: This is one of the shortest books I've read in the past few years. I was able to finish it in under two hours.
A young girl (of unknown nationality) goes about her complacent routine until one day a tragedy befalls a nearby city and she loses her entire family. Told by the girl herself, it tells of her hope that her family will return, her denial that they won't return after time passes, her fears at being alone, her grief at losing those dear to her. We learn how she copes with being alone in a time of turmoil; her acceptance that there are others worse off than she; and of how she learns that life goes on regardless of what happens around us. A compelling, gripping story; packs a lot of punch into a few pages.Name:
Alice Hoffman
Current Home:
Boston, Massachusetts
Date of Birth:
March 16, 1952
Place of Birth:
New York, New York
Education:
B.A., Adelphi University, 1973; M.A., Stanford University, 1974
Born in the 1950s to college-educated parents who divorced when she was young, Alice Hoffman was raised by her single, working mother in a blue-collar Long Island neighborhood. Although she felt like an outsider growing up, she discovered that these feelings of not quite belonging positioned her uniquely to observe people from a distance. Later, she would hone this viewpoint in stories that captured the full intensity of the human experience.
After high school, Hoffman went to work for the Doubleday factory in Garden City. But the eight-hour, supervised workday was not for her, and she quit before lunch on her first day! She enrolled in night school at Adelphi University, graduating in 1971 with a degree in English. She went on to attend Stanford University's Creative Writing Center on a Mirrellees Fellowship. Her mentor at Stanford, the great teacher and novelist Albert Guerard, helped to get her first story published in the literary magazine Fiction. The story attracted the attention of legendary editor Ted Solotaroff, who asked if she had written any longer fiction. She hadn't -- but immediately set to work. In 1977, when Hoffman was 25, her first novel, Property Of, was published to great fanfare.
Since that remarkable debut, Hoffman has carved herself a unique niche in American fiction. A favorite with teens as well as adults, she renders life's deepest mysteries immediately understandable in stories suffused with magic realism and a dreamy, fairy-tale sensibility. (In a 1994 article for The New York Times, interviewer Ruth Reichl described the magic in Hoffman's books as a casual, regular occurrence -- "...so offhand that even the most skeptical reader can accept it.") Her characters' lives are transformed by uncontrollable forces -- love and loss, sorrow and bliss, danger and death.
Hoffman's 1997 novel Here on Earth was selected as an Oprah Book Club pick, but even without Winfrey's powerful endorsement, her books have become huge bestsellers -- including three that have been adapted for the movies: Practical Magic (1995), The River King (2000), and her YA fable Aquamarine (2001).
Hoffman is a breast cancer survivor; and like many people who consider themselves blessed with luck, she believes strongly in giving back. For this reason, she donated her advance from her 1999 short story collection Local Girls to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA.
What were the books that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?
Edward Eager's brilliant series of suburban magic: Half Magic, Magic by the Lake, Magic or Not, Knight's Castle, The Time Garden, Seven-Day Magic, The Well Wishers.
Anything by Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, J. D. Salinger, Grace Paley.
My favorite book: Emily Brontė's Wuthering Heights.
What are your favorite books, and what makes them special to you?
All are beautiful, essential, single voices. I love them all.
What are some of your favorite films?
What types of music do you like? Is there any particular kind you like to listen to when you're writing?
If you had a book club, what would it be reading -- and why?
All the books we read as children, moving up in time.
What are your favorite kinds of books to give -- and get -- as gifts?
Journals, the smaller the better. Atlases, star charts, photography books.
Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you're writing?
On my desk: Photos of dogs, photos of kids, photos of dogs that have passed on, rocks, stones, roses. The major ritual -- close the door.
Many writers are hardly "overnight success" stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?
I was helped enormously by the kindness of my mentor, Albert Guerard and my agent of thirty years, Elaine Markson. All luck, all kindness. Including my first rejection note, sent by Esquire when I was sixteen -- hand-written, taking me seriously, and telling me to send another story when I grew up. I intend to.
If you could choose one new writer to be "discovered," who would it be -- and why?
Someone who sounds like no one else on earth; someone who doesn't know what the word irony means, or doesn't care. Someone who's fearless.
What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
Discover yourself -- that's all there is.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the summer of 2004, we asked authors featured in Meet the Writers to give us a list of their all-time favorite summer reads, and tell us what makes them just right for the season. Here's what Alice Hoffman had to say:
The Barnes & Noble Review
Aquamarine author Alice Hoffman creates a work of literary art with this halcyon fairy tale about loss and renewal.
In lyrical words that "unfold like white flowers, petal by petal, each in its own time and season," Hoffman introduces us to Green, a gentle teen whose name reveals her connection to the earth and a peaceful beauty that contrasts with her sunny sister, Aurora. Yet when Aurora and her parents perish in tragic, fiery events in town, a solitary Green transforms herself into Ash: hard and closed, cropped hair, thorns on her sweater, with ink roses and ravens drawn on her skin. Facing an apocalyptic future of looters visiting her garden and suspicious looks from townsfolk, Green has only the family dog to keep her company. But when a ghostly greyhound and a hooded boy suddenly appear for companionship, she slowly realizes that "Ash" is only temporary, while "Green" is her soul, her life, healing all this time inside, waiting to be reborn.
Weaving magical words into images that caress the spirit, Hoffman's Green Angel is no less remarkable and awe-inspiring than nature itself. The author has not only told a life-affirming story about a girl who must survive on her own, she's captured emotion itself by using language to enchant and teach. Readers will be absorbed by the book's transcendent power, and as Green begins a new future that takes shape at end of the book, readers will come away feeling rejuvenated and uplifted themselves. Shana Taylor
When her family is lost in a terrible disaster, 15-yr-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past. Struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she'd once been as she inks ravens into her skin. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters -- with a ghostly white dog and a mute boy -- that Green relearns the lessons of love and begins to heal as she tells her own story.
A shy 15-year-old girl is left behind one day when her family goes into the city and perishes in a cataclysmic fire. In a boxed review, PW described the novel as "a post-apocalyptic fairy tale leavened with hope." Ages 11-up. (June) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Green, a girl who is left behind when a terrible disaster takes the lives of her mother, father, and sister, is struggling to survive on her own. Green, considered the most needed by everyone, feels very compassionate about the earth, gardening, and being in the woods. She provided the family with information on cures for common diseases, harvesting times, and crops. The family sold the crops to the market as a source of money. Now, the town in which Green has grown up has been burned, leaving nothing but a few people who survived and a few places of business. Green deals with her emotions and loneliness by drawing on her body with black ink pictures of bats, ravens, and roses. Green becomes friends with a "ghostly" dog, a boy who can't speak, a hawk who has a burnt beak, and a neighbor from whom she used to steal fruit. Green helps each one in a special way, either by giving them food or providing them a place to stay. Each character slowly helps Green remember who she is and places happiness back in her life. All of these characters help Green cope with her emotions toward the loss of her family, along with the love and compassion she gave to them, and allow her finally to release these feelings and tell her own story. 2003, Scholastic Press, Ages 12 up.
Hoffman offers young adult readers a chance to enjoy her magical realism writing style in this novel. Fifteen-year-old Green lives a bucolic life in the country with her father, mother, and younger sister, Aurora. With her mother, Green grows the produce that is sold in the city for the family's livelihood. Green's life is permanently altered when the city is destroyed by fire on market day, killing her family. Devastated by loss, Green must learn to survive both physically and emotionally. This book is divided into five parts or chapters titled Heart, Soul, Treasure, Rain, and Sister, which mirror Green's evolution from a grief-stricken, hopeless survivor to a resilient, independent young woman. Each section begins with a black-and-white illustration evocative of Green's experiences. Her first-person narration lends authenticity and immediacy to the story, enabling readers to empathize with her plight. Hoffman's simple, lyrical prose creates a metaphor for the transition from adolescence to adulthood, from dependence to autonomy. Green's haunting transformation from a depressed teen who tattoos herself with black ink to a strong young woman who helps others survive is sure to strike a chord with teen readers. Sparse, concise, and luminous, the author's words effectively draw the reader into both Green's world and her experiences. This beautifully written tale not only is an excellent young adult read, but also could be used in English classes exploring metaphor, symbolism, and parables. Illus. VOYA Codes: 5Q 4P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, definedas grades 10 to 12). 2003, Scholastic, 128p,
To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, January 2003: Hoffman follows up her other colorfully titled novels for YAs (Aquamarine, Indigo) with this poetic fairytale about a 15-year-old girl nicknamed Green, because she has a talent for gardening. One day her parents and younger sister head out to the nearby city to sell the vegetables they grow, but Green stays home to tend the garden. A terrible catastrophe strikes the city that day, a fire so devastating that the embers fly all the way to Green's home and get in her eyes, nearly blinding her. Grief-stricken by the loss of her family, Green puts thorns on her clothes and nails on her boots, and covers her skin with tattoos of black vines and black roses, renaming herself "Ash." She scrounges desolately in the woods for any food she can find, and it isn't until she takes in a ghostly white greyhound that her heart starts to open up again to others. She helps out a neighbor and a former classmate, adopts some sparrows and a hawk, and welcomes a mute, fire-damaged boy to come stay in her house. She finally accepts help from othersthe sparrows weave her a fishing net from strands of her hair, for exampleand gradually her heart starts to heal and her black tattoos begin to turn green. She is Green once again, with a new understanding of loving and letting go, realizing that "There was the world waiting outside, aching and ruined, but beautiful all the same." This parable has the pull and charm of myth, and the clear reference to the events of 9/11 give it an extra poignancy. Fairytale and fantasy fans will love this. KLIATT Codes: JS*Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high schoolstudents. 2003, Scholastic, 116p., Ages 12 to 18.
Gr 8 Up-When her world disappears in a maelstrom of fire and ash, 15-year-old Green struggles to survive. Through her encounters with others she slowly begins to heal and create a new life. A beautifully written, allegorical story. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
In oblique response to the events of 9/11, Hoffman (Indigo, 2002, etc.) crafts this otherworldly tale of an orphan giving and receiving help in the wake of a massive disaster. Describing herself as a "moody, dark weed," with an affinity for growing things, Green covers herself in darkness and thorns after watching a huge fire in the nearby town rob her of parents, and of her wild, golden little sister. Nearly blinded by falling cinders, she changes her name to Ash, cuts her hair, sews rose thorns onto her clothing, and tattoos herself all over with inky vines, briars, ravens, and bats. At first leaving her house only to find food or add stones to the cairns she's building for her family, she gradually finds herself caring for injured animals, an aged neighbor, and another orphan, a burned, silent young painter she dubs Diamond. Ultimately, time's a healer, as tears wash the ashes from her eyes, her dreams lighten, and her tattoos green up just as her devastated garden does. A suggestion that the fire was set by people who "had been living among us, pretending to be good neighbors," adds an additional, and thought provoking connection to historical events-but even readers who don't make that connection on their own will be moved by the powerful imagery in Green's spare, haunting narrative. Hoffman's other "crossover" novels have been criticized as heavy-handed; here she shows a more delicate touch. (Fiction. 11-13)
Loading...
loading...
loading...
loading...
Hear our exclusive audio interview with Alice Hoffman (10:11).
Terms of Use, Copyright, and Privacy Policy
© 1997-2009 Barnesandnoble.com llc