Wonderland

by Joanna Nadin

Overview

She’s back. Jude’s childhood friend -- sexy, daring Stella-- returns to their stifling hometown, and life will never be the same again.

(Ages 14&Up)

Sixteen-year-old Jude has to get out of tiny Churchtown. She has to escape her outcast status and her pathetic dad, who hasn’t gotten past her mother’s death. The one bright light is drama, her way out, if only she can get into the Lab, a prestigious program in London. Then Stella, Jude’s childhood best friend, swaggers in after years away. With bold and magnetic Stella by her side, Jude knows she’s capable of anything. But Stella’s influence extends well beyond the theater. Soon Stella’s wild and dangerous streak begins to cause trouble for Jude -- yet Jude can’t bring herself to abandon Stella and the attention she’s always craved. And besides, now that Stella’s back, there’s no stopping her. In Jude’s dark and tangled story, British author Joanna Nadin plumbs the aftermath of loss and the consequences of becoming the person you always wished you were.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763654535
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/08/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	HL350L (what's this?)
File size:	703 KB
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Joanna Nadin is the author of numerous books for young readers. Wonderland marks her YA debut in the United States. She says, “I wanted to explore the idea of identity, and of wanting to be someone else, which is what I seemed to spend a large part of my teens, and some of my adulthood, doing.” She lives in Bath, England.

Editorial Reviews

"Jude. Named after a song in the hope that I'd stand out and shine. But I didn't. Jude the Invisible. Jude the Obscure." British author Nadin's wrenching U.S. debut centers on 16-year-old Jude, a talented actress who feels outcast, alone, and out of place at school and at home, where the presence of her vibrant mother still lingers years after her death. Jude longs for the return of her brash childhood friend, Stella, and soon after, Stella pops back into Jude's life, helping Jude regain her confidence—even taking her place at a crucial acting audition—but also leading her down a path of self-destructive behavior. Observant readers will pick up clues in Nadin's prose that hint at the book's twist ending, but the author skillfully keeps the conclusion from feeling foregone, even with an opening scene that has Jude and Stella in a car about to head over a cliff. Indeed, even those who figure out Stella's secret before Jude does won't be disappointed in their final confrontation, and many will want to reread the book armed with their new knowledge. Ages 14–up. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Sarah Coomes’s narration keeps listeners squarely in the point of view of shy 16-year-old Jude, who wants to respond to the urgings of her rebellious friend, Stella—yet doesn’t quite dare to. Coomes’s reading carries nuances that will alert discerning listeners to the many facets of Jude’s character. They’ll observe Jude’s alternating envy and fear of her saucy friend. And they’ll wonder who exactly Stella is—a real cigarette-toting, vodka-swilling role model or the personification of Jude’s desire to break out of her life in a stifling English town and become an actress, as her mother once was? Coomes dramatizes the torment of being caught between the drive to discover oneself and the desire to protect oneself from taking risks. S.W. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

MAY 2011 - AudioFile

Stella first appeared shortly after Jude's mother died. Now that Jude is 16 and eager to escape her small English town and her classmates' torment, her childhood friend is back, "carrying cigarettes and sunglasses and possibility." Jude feels like a faded version of her actress mother, but Stella emboldens her to leave her self-imposed obscurity to audition at a London drama school. Jude wants to be Stella, who speaks in film lines, dresses provocatively and chides Jude for still being a virgin. Jude's internal world is a place of her own invention, where she took refuge after her mother's death. Nadin keeps the first-person narration squarely within this world, deftly weaving together the intricate parts of a psychological puzzle as she slowly reveals the true nature of the girls' relationship. Jude's voice is a blend of biting teen angst and fragile ego. When Stella tells Jude "there is no me without you," Jude is forced to come to grips with her recent gaps in memory and Stella's destructive influence. Teens harboring a secret wish to be anyone other than who they are will identify with Jude's struggle to shrug off her status as a misfit. A promising U.S. debut for teens—here's hoping for more from this British writer. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews