Overview
"Looking back, I'd have to say my life was one long snooze until the day I met Razzle Penney at the Truro dump."
Before his junior year of high school, Kenyon Baker and his parents move to Cape Cod to run a summer cottage colony. Ken has to paint the cabins and supervise the plumber in return for living in his own cottage, where he can have a darkroom to print his photographs. The first kid his age he meets is Razzle Penney, named for Raziel, the Angel of Mysteries. Razzle is an offbeat character who works at the Swap Shop at the town dump. She becomes the subject of an inspiring series of photos that Ken takes.
When beautiful, boy-crazy Harley takes an interest in Ken, it causes a rift in his friendship with Razzle. It all comes to a head when Razzle's mother breezes into town and tells her more about her past than she wants to know.
Of Ellen Wittlinger's Hard Love, Booklist said, "Teenagers should be prepared to laugh, wince, rage, weep, and heave at least one deep sigh when they read this meaningful story." Readers of Razzle will find that description appropriate, too.
When his retired parents buy a group of tourist cabins on Cape Cod, fifteen-year-old Kenyon Baker's days are filled with repair work until he becomes friends with an eccentric girl and makes her the subject of a series of photographs.
Synopsis
Razzle Penney, an oddball teen who works at the town dump, befriends Ken Baker when he and his parents first move to Cape Cod. Ken is drawn to Razzle's eccentricities, and she inspires the best photographs he has taken. However, she also introduces him to her nemesis, Harley, a boy-crazy beauty who gets what she wants and she wants Ken. As Ken's friendship with Razzle and his relationship with Harley both stumble, Razzle's mother comes back to town, with a revelation about Razzle's past that devastates her. Razzle wants to turn to Ken but finds that he, too has hurt her, and she may never be able to forgive him.
As she did in her award-winning novel, Hard Love, Ellen Wittlinger shows that while love and friendship are critical, neither is easy to sustain.
Publishers Weekly
When his parents retire, the 15-year-old narrator begrudgingly moves with them from Boston to Cape Cod, where he meets eccentric Razzle. "Readers will relate to the strained relationship he has with his parents, especially his mother who raised him on `automatic pilot,' " wrote PW. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
When his parents retire, the 15-year-old narrator begrudgingly moves with them from Boston to Cape Cod, where he meets eccentric Razzle. "Readers will relate to the strained relationship he has with his parents, especially his mother who raised him on `automatic pilot,' " wrote PW. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Publishers Weekly
When his parents retire, Kenyon, the 15-year-old narrator of Wittlinger's (Hard Love) uneven new book, begrudgingly moves with them from Boston to the Cape Cod beach community, where they plan to renovate and run a cottage colony for tourists. He meets eccentric (and equally lonely) Razzle at the Truro town dump where she works. While their relationship develops smoothly and realistically, other characters and plot points come off as flat. As Ken gets more involved in Razzle's chaotic life, she teaches him not to be a "perwin" ("person without imagination") and instead to be someone visible. He also learns though a little late the value of loyalty. Some of the plotting is spot on (for example, when Ken, a budding photographer, is manipulated by a loose local knockout to showcase cheesy photos of her along with his soulful shots of Razzle at the end-of-the-summer art show). Readers will also relate to the strained relationship he has with his parents, especially his mother who raised him on "automatic pilot." Other points are less successful, such as Razzle's alcoholic mother's dramatic confession about what happened to the father of her children, and a few supporting characters, including a gay plumber and an old artist who stays at the cottages, seem too scripted. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.KLIATT
To quote KLIATT's September 2001 review of the hardcover edition: By the author of Hard Love, an ALA Best Book for YAs also set in the Boston area, Razzle tells of one pivotal summer in the life of Kenyon Baker. His parents retired and moved them to Cape Cod. Kenyon's main interest is photography and he has always gotten along without many friends. Razzle works at a recycle operation at the dump. Their friendship grows but is thwarted when Kenyon falls for Harley (named after the motorcycle), the sexiest teenager in town. The nuts and bolts of the story is the understanding Kenyon gains about love and friendship, and about the creative process. Each character is interesting (well, Harley is just a beautiful bimbo type), and Kenyon for the first time connects to people, especially other creative people. The truth about Razzle's parentage is a main theme, with the denouement coming at the end of the novel accompanied by plenty of histrionics, especially those supplied by Razzle's drunken mother. Wittlinger's teenage characters are smart, creative, and eager to understand their world. Their conversations are intelligent and probing, as are Kenyon's musings (the story is narrated in the first person by Kenyon, with plenty of opportunity for him to mull over things). By the end of this eventful summer, Kenyon is forced to move on, but he knows the summer has changed his life forever (always a good solid YA theme). An ALA Best Book for YAs. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2001, Simon & Schuster, Pulse, 248p.,— Claire Rosser