Amiri and Odette: A Love Story - Hardcover

Walter Dean Myers

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590680412 ISBN 13: 9780590680417

Publisher: Scholastic Press, 2009

Synopsis

In this modern retelling of the Swan Lake ballet, acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers explores the sweet/sharp spark of love between two teens.

A boy searches for his newfound love among the city streets, to find that, unwarily, she's been caught in the arms of an evil street lord who means her harm. It is only through perseverance and undying love that the girl is returned to the safety of her one true love. Lyrical text and stunning mixed media artwork make for a powerful recasting of the classic ballet Swan Lake.

About this title

About the Author:

Walter Dean Myers is the 2012 - 2013 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. He is the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author an award-winning body of work which includes, SOMEWHERE IN THE DARKNESS, SLAM!, and MONSTER. Mr. Myers has received two Newbery Honor medals, five Coretta Scott King Author Awards, and three National Book Award Finalists citations. In addition, he is the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award. He lives in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Javaka Steptoe is the award-winning artist of many books for young people, an NAACP Image Awards nominee, and winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. He is also the artist of the highly acclaimed books DO YOU KNOW WHAT I’LL DO by Charlotte Zolotow and A POCKETFUL OF POEMS by Nikki Grimes. Son of the late award-winning author/artist John Steptoe, Javaka draws inspiration from the multifaceted colors and shapes of Brooklyn, NY, where he lives and works.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 7 Up—Born from Myers's musings on the underlying violence in Swan Lake, this story is a riff on that ballet with tones of West Side Story, Shakespeare, and hip-hop. In the projects, Amiri's mom is going to throw him a party in the hope that he'll find the right girl and settle down. But that night on the courts, Amiri meets Odette—and though she is promised to Big Red, a crack dealer, they proclaim their love. "And thus the pact is set, the bargain sealed,/Both agony and love revealed./But are solutions so easily discovered?/Happy endings so readily recovered/Among the castaways and rejects/Of the teeming Swan Lake Projects?/Is happy chance alone gladly greeted/And Big Red so easily defeated?" There follows the evil twin, the betrayal, the forgiveness, the fight—and a happier ending than in most versions of the ballet. Myers's verse is almost overwrought—as it should be to suit the story, and the intensity of teenage love. The melodrama combines with an energy and beat that—heightened by dynamic text design—makes this ideal for performance. Steptoe's collage-on-cinderblock illustrations have a roughness, darkness, and density that suit the tone. This selection will broaden any teen collection.—Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA
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About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0590680412
• ISBN 13: 9780590680417
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40