Camilla (Laurel Leaf Books)

by Madeleine L'Engle

Series: Camilla Dickinson Series (book 1 of 2)

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Work details

Book details

Title	Camilla (Laurel Leaf Books)
Author	Madeleine L'Engle
Rating
Tags	fiction, unread, young adult, choo
Collections	Your library
Your review	Camilla is the story of Camilla Dickinson, a 15 year old from a wealthy New York City family. She is an only child and has lived a relatively sheltered life until one day she comes home to find her beautiful and fragile mother kissing a man who isn't her strong and silent father. Camilla is great because she keeps almost everything inside (I can relate) and doesn't talk about how all this makes her feel, even to her best friend Luisa whose parents often have screaming matches that wake up the neighbors, drink too much, and break things. Instead Camilla finds herself falling into a first romance with Luisa's older brother, Frank, and that little bit of distance is enough to pull her away from her parents and make her see herself as an individual, her parents as human, and her friends as fallible. There are the kinds of young-romance / coming-of-age plot points that you might expect in this kind of novel, but L'Engle handles them all in such a unique, real, and dark way that this book is miles away from the usual young adult fare. It treats the reader like they are smart and grown up enough to read about war, death, drinking problems, suicide, amputation, depression, unhappy endings, and failed love. There are light and happy points too, and L'Engle's description of New York City is truly wonderful. [full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2008/06...]
Other authors 1
Publication	Laurel Leaf (1982), Paperback, 288 pages
Publication date	1982
ISBN	0440911710 / 9780440911715
LC classification 1	PZ7.L5385 Cam
Dewey 1	[Fic] 19
Subjects	Family problems › Fiction New York (N.Y.) › Fiction Parent and child › Fiction
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired
Date started
Date finished
Summary 0	Camilla (Laurel Leaf Books) by Madeleine L'Engle (1982)
Comments
BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Wikipedia citation
Data source	amazon.com