Defining Dulcie

by Paul Acampora Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda

Overview

Paul Acampora makes his exciting debut in young adult fiction with this poignant tale of a girl coping with the recent death of her father. When her mother moves the family to California, Dulcie decides to drive her father's pickup truck back to Connecticut on her own. "An affecting, engaging family story, uniquely told ..." -Booklist, starred review

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Acampora deftly mixes the bitter with the sweet throughout this first novel. Sixteen-year-old Dulcie Morrigan Jones's father, a janitor at her high school, has just died as a result of inadvertently mixing together and inhaling two chemically incompatible cleaning solutions. "Isn't losing Dad enough of a change?" the narrator asks when her mother announces that the two of them will be moving from Connecticut to California. After bidding farewell to her beloved grandfather, Frank, Dulcie and her mother head west in her father's 1968 Chevy pickup. When Dulcie's mother later decides to trade in the pick-up, the prospect of losing this remnant of her father is too much, and Dulcie drives it back to the home she cannot leave behind. She moves in with Frank, also a janitor, and spends the summer working with him and another student, Roxanne. Much of the novel's charm grows out of Dulcie's budding friendship with Roxanne, who is coping with an abusive mother, and the humor bandied about between the two girls and Frank. Dulcie's narrative realistically mixes joy and pain in reminiscences about her father and her solo cross-country journey, which included visits to the Kansas Fainting Goat Farm and the Shrine of Holy Relics in Ohio. Reflecting on her Ohio stop, Dulcie muses that her father's truck, the dictionaries he gave to her, and her grandfather's kitchen table "were my own relics-pieces and fragments of places and people that I could hold and remember." A carefully crafted, impressive debut. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-Strong and quirky characters who see life as an inextricable mix of sadness and humor, sorrow and hope, are the hallmark of this memorable first novel. When 16-year-old Dulcie's beloved dad dies, she and her mom leave her granddad in Connecticut and drive to California to start over. This doesn't work for the still-grieving Dulcie so she takes their truck and drives home to pick up the pieces of her old life and remember her father in all the old places. Her road trip and memories of it, along with events that occur once she arrives home, provide the figurative journey that begins her healing. Rather than being a sad or solemn read, however, the treatment is unexpectedly offbeat and, at times, wonderfully funny. By including details of Dulcie's interesting stops along the way, including her experiences with a field of fainting goats, Acampora demonstrates a Joan Bauer-like knack for making ordinary life worth a second look. Teens will appreciate both the warm security that surrounds Dulcie and the hard truth that life can be painful.-Faith Brautigam, Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Dulcie's dad and grandfather were the school janitors in her Connecticut town, until her dad died in a chemical accident. Suddenly her mom decides to move and takes Dulcie to California. Wanting desperately not to leave what she knows, Dulcie takes her father's truck that her mother was about to sell and drives back to her grandfather's, sending her mom postcards from odd destinations across the country. When she returns as her grandfather's unpaid assistant for the summer, she meets his new junior assistant, Roxanne, who loves cleaning and hates being at home for a reason that will reveal itself in order to make everything else work out. And that it does, though with a not-too-convincing ease. None of the characters quite resolve themselves into full-fledged people and there is a little too much storyline, but often the dialogue is very funny. As a newcomer, Acampora is one to watch. The girls are spunky but oddly genderless, and Grandpa Frank is too wise and too patient to be believed, but teens who want to think of themselves as capable of self-sufficiency will connect to Dulcie and her independent attitude. (Fiction. YA)

AUG/SEP 07 - AudioFile

Jennifer Ikeda leads the listener on Dulcie’s road trip of discovery from California, where she and her mom have just moved, back home to her grandfather in Connecticut. Ikeda’s youthful, understated voice conveys Dulcie’s thoughts as she deals with her father’s sudden death and her friend Roxanne’s abusive mother. Ikeda’s unhurried pacing evokes the folksy vignettes of Dulcie’s cross-country drive and the quirks of her work as a high school student janitor. While Ikeda imbues the conflict between Roxanne and her mother with some drama, the production never loses the calm, idyllic quality that transcends even pain and loss. Ikeda does have a persistent sibilance that, while noticeable, should not prevent listening. Overall, this is an unusual story made accessible by a thoughtful narrator. C.A. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169532401
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	06/06/2008
Edition description:	Unabridged

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