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1heinous-eli
I posted about this book in this group 6 years ago. I'm hoping that some newly-recovered memories about the details, as well as the new members on here, can help.
I remember buying it at a used bookstore and loving it as a pre-teen, but I can't, for the life of me, remember what it was called. It was missing its dust jacket and was a dusty blue-gray with gold lettering.
It was about a boy who gets a video camera for his birthday and decides to make a sci-fi movie. The plot of his movie revolved around a young girl whom the protagonist has to help, an old teacher figure who mentors the protagonist, and an evil sorceress/demoness/female monster of some sort that the protagonist has to defeat.
The boy uses his neighbor as the young girl; the neighbor has an obvious crush on him. He tells the new teacher in town about his project and she helps him out; he develops a crush on the teacher. The teacher's first name is Laura. In the end, due to his crush on Laura, he ends up modifying the plot of his movie so that the young girl, the teacher, and the antagonist end up being different manifestations of the same character in some psychological weirdness. In the end, he gives up on the movie project after the neighbor girl points out that his movie sucks and he will never make it with his teacher. The ending is not happy but the boy grows a lot from the experience.
Random tidbit: In the book, he mistakenly calls Han Solo from Star Wars "Hans Solo" (which bothered me to no end, as I recall, since I'm a SW nut).
I think the sci-fi element of his movie may have involved time travel, but I could be wrong. I've been wondering about this book for years now and the only Google results I get are from the post that I made about it 6 years ago (talk about a feeling of futility).
I remember buying it at a used bookstore and loving it as a pre-teen, but I can't, for the life of me, remember what it was called. It was missing its dust jacket and was a dusty blue-gray with gold lettering.
It was about a boy who gets a video camera for his birthday and decides to make a sci-fi movie. The plot of his movie revolved around a young girl whom the protagonist has to help, an old teacher figure who mentors the protagonist, and an evil sorceress/demoness/female monster of some sort that the protagonist has to defeat.
The boy uses his neighbor as the young girl; the neighbor has an obvious crush on him. He tells the new teacher in town about his project and she helps him out; he develops a crush on the teacher. The teacher's first name is Laura. In the end, due to his crush on Laura, he ends up modifying the plot of his movie so that the young girl, the teacher, and the antagonist end up being different manifestations of the same character in some psychological weirdness. In the end, he gives up on the movie project after the neighbor girl points out that his movie sucks and he will never make it with his teacher. The ending is not happy but the boy grows a lot from the experience.
Random tidbit: In the book, he mistakenly calls Han Solo from Star Wars "Hans Solo" (which bothered me to no end, as I recall, since I'm a SW nut).
I think the sci-fi element of his movie may have involved time travel, but I could be wrong. I've been wondering about this book for years now and the only Google results I get are from the post that I made about it 6 years ago (talk about a feeling of futility).
2bookel
http://books.google.com.au/advanced_book_search
science fiction "make a film" video camera
ticked Books, language English, year range 1980-1989.
Timewarp Summer by Norma Johnston
Atheneum, 01/02/1983 - 161 pages
After a summer devoted to producing a short science fiction film during which they become emotionally involved, Scott, Bettina, and Laura realize that it had been a season when "Time was warped out of sync" for all three of them.
Norma Johnston, Timewarp summer
Kirkus Reviews
"Like her historical novels, Johnston's first venture into a contemporary setting deals in earnest, extended definitions of relationships. The Timewarp in the title refers to both the sci-fi film 16-year-old Scott spends his summer on and his relationship with beautiful 27-year-old Dr. Laura Weller, a newly divorced Ph.D. and former disco dancer come to work at Kinefilm where sci-fi enthusiast Scott has a summer job. ..."
Solved!
science fiction "make a film" video camera
ticked Books, language English, year range 1980-1989.
Timewarp Summer by Norma Johnston
Atheneum, 01/02/1983 - 161 pages
After a summer devoted to producing a short science fiction film during which they become emotionally involved, Scott, Bettina, and Laura realize that it had been a season when "Time was warped out of sync" for all three of them.
Norma Johnston, Timewarp summer
Kirkus Reviews
"Like her historical novels, Johnston's first venture into a contemporary setting deals in earnest, extended definitions of relationships. The Timewarp in the title refers to both the sci-fi film 16-year-old Scott spends his summer on and his relationship with beautiful 27-year-old Dr. Laura Weller, a newly divorced Ph.D. and former disco dancer come to work at Kinefilm where sci-fi enthusiast Scott has a summer job. ..."
Solved!
