The Tulip Touch - Hardcover

Fine, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316283258 ISBN 13: 9780316283250

Publisher: Little Brown & Co, 1997

Synopsis

From the first day of their friendship, Natalie falls under the spell of bad-girl Tulip--telling lies to classmates, talking back to teachers, and playing evil tricks on people--but when Natalie tries to get away from the menace, she knows that Tulip will get the ultimate revenge.

About this title

About the Author:

Anne Fine read Politics and History at Warwick and then became a teacher. Her first novel was published in 1975 and today she is one of the UK's most successful children's writers. She has won many awards including two Carnegie Medals, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Whitbread Prize. GOGGLE-EYES was serialised on TV and MADAME DOUBTFIRE was made into a hit Hollywood movie. Anne lives in County Durham.

From Kirkus Reviews:

The author of Alias Madame Doubtfire (1987) and, more recently, Step by Wicked Step (1996) mines a darker vein with this study in malevolence. Exploring the countryside around the elegant old hotel her father is now managing, Natalie first sees Tulip standing in a field holding a kitten; later in school Natalie makes overtures of friendship, not realizing until too late that Tulip is a social outcast and perennial discipline problem as well. Enthralled by Tulip's fearlessly antisocial behavior, Natalie surrenders her will and common sense, playing along in a succession of pranks, cleverly subtle harassment, and quiet, mean games with hair-raising names--Rats in a Firestorm or Road of Bones. In Fine's view, Tulip is to be pitied as much as feared, for her twisted, uncontrolled nature has been molded by an abusive father--but all of the adults in the story come in for a share of the blame, too, aware of Tulip's situation but, beyond handwringing, allowing it to continue. After a game of Wild Nights ends in arson, Natalie finds herself abruptly free of Tulip's spell and breaks off the friendship. Tulip retaliates, and on Christmas Eve, the hotel goes up in flames. Fine expresses with canny precision her protagonist's ambivalence and soul- searching, challenging readers to see how fascinating such repellent behavior can be. A moving, complex story. (Fiction. 11-13) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown & Co
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0316283258
• ISBN 13: 9780316283250
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 149