The Juniper Game

The Juniper Game is a really unusual YA book! Published in 1991, it features characters who communicate telepathically through artwork. Juniper, a popular and charismatic teen, is completely obsessed with the Middle Ages and wants someone to test out her telepathic abilities on. Dylan, a shy unpopular teen from an unstable home, is a talented artist and desperate for a friend. Juniper and Dylan begin to spend time together and discover that their combined gifts have unexpected consequences. While it isn't a perfect book, it definitely solidified Sherryl Jordan as one of my favorite YA authors!

15-year old Dylan, a nobody at school, is not having much fun at home either. His mother is miserable in her barren marriage and leans on Dylan to care for his young twin sisters; when Mom abandons the family, it is up to Dylan to be cook and housekeeper as well. Small wonder that he is bewitched by dazzling Juniper, a new girl at school, who recruits him to play a strange game: She will send him mental images, and he will draw them for her. Juniper's images become ever more vivid and it is soon clear that Juniper and Dylan are actually time-traveling to a real place and time - medieval England, where a beautiful young woman is about to be accused of witchcraft..

This is YA fantasy, and I really liked how Aussie author Jordan manages to show more mix down-to-earth, overburdened-teen misery with the dreamlike, dangerous world she creates; and I like how she takes the character Juniper from idealized icon to vulnerable yet determined woman over the course of the novel. Also, like fellow Aussie Margaret Mahy, she does a very nice, female-empowering sketch of teenage relationships. Dylan's intense respect and tenderness for Juniper contrasts beautifully with her actual boyfriend's self-centered bullying, but Jordan doesn't pressure the reader: it's clear why Juniper stays with Kingsley, and also clear that she will have to make a decision between the two boys.

Plus, the story is great. An excellent, exciting YA. show less

Juniper is a beautiful teenager, passionately interested in medieval times. She is popular, but her boyfriend, Kingsley, is disconcerted by her developing clairvoyant powers. Dylan, the new boy at school, doesn’t seem to have anything going for him, until Juniper accidentally discovers his incredible talent as an artist. So she makes a proposal to him: would he try to receive and draw an image she sends to him telepathically? So begins their adventure… but is Juniper really sending just images?

Dylan’s life is transformed by Juniper’s involvement in it. He lives with his unemployed parents and twin six-year-old sisters, and things at home are far from harmonious. Juniper lives in a beautiful home with her mother; and Niall, a show more gypsy, is a frequent visitor. Their home is tranquil, filled with light and laughter, and here Dylan learns to play cards, make coleslaw, and be himself. However, as the intensity of the relationship between Juniper and Dylan continues to grow, their parents become increasingly concerned about the experiences the two teens are sharing.

Juniper, initially repulsed by Dylan’s gawkiness, finds herself completely in awe of his artistic skill. Like her, he is interested in castles, armour, and “medieval things”. She knows he is the perfect person for the experiment she’s dying to try, and as they spend time together, she finds other qualities she admires about him. She is impressed, for example, by his tolerance of her irrational fear of water, and his refusal to let her get too carried away.

Besides the elation of successfully receiving and transmitting images, Juniper and Dylan begin to share a deeper connection. He can sometimes sense her intense emotions, even from his own home, and he is the only one to whom she can really explain about her connection to the medieval period. It is more than an interest: there is a girl, Johanna, who lived in that time, whose soul and destiny seem somehow intertwined with Juniper’s.

Once Dylan and Juniper have mastered their basic telepathic exchanges, Juniper begins to share with him some of the images she has of Johanna. Somehow they become spectators in Johanna’s life, and those of her adoring husband and child. But everything is not as wonderful for Johanna as it first seems – people in her village have been talking about her, people who seem to think that Johanna poses some kind of threat.

This story is an absorbing read about the nature of love and time. I would recommend it to any reader who has ever felt as though they don’t fit in because they are interested in the wrong kind of things. show less

I wanted more time travel, I got more of Juniper treating Dylan like a doormatfriend for almost the entire book and long descriptions of Dylan drawing better pictures than Da Vinci.

Or maybe I was just Sassy McCrankypants while I was reading this. I wanted it to be BAM! POW! TIME TRAVEL! $*(#& and it totally wasn't.

Can you think of more quirky cool or quirky annoying characters? Let's discuss! (I am immovable regarding the characters on the list but feel free to disagree:))

First science fiction book I ever read - while I was in junior high. Loved it. :)

First science fiction book I ever read - while I was in junior high. Loved it. :)