Virgin Territory

August 23, 2010
Fifteen-year-old Dylan is sleepwalking through his life in Jupiter, Fla., where he moved nine years ago with his father after his mother died. But everything changes at the start of summer vacation when an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary (aka the BVM) appears in the bark of a tree at the golf course where Dylan works. Devotees arrive in droves, hoping for cures to various illnesses, and when Dylan meets Angela, the daughter of a BVM pilgrim, he falls hard. Angela invites him to join the "Virgin Club," with fellow teens Crispy and Desirée, whose mothers also follow BVM sightings around the country. For the first time in years Dylan finds himself taking risks and caring deeply about his new friends. There are some jarring inconsistencies in the setting (Dylan was apparently five years old in 1997, six in 2001, and, although the story is set in 2010, people are still talking about Pluto's 2006 demotion from planet status). But Lecesne (Absolute Brightness) delivers a quiet journey that is occasionally humorous and often moving. Ages 12–up.

January 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-When the golf course where he caddies for the summer closes due to mobs that follow the appearance of a tree blotch that looks remarkably like the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dylan finds himself involved with new friends in surprising escapades. Since the death of his mother, he and his father left New York City for Jupiter, FL, trying to reinvent their lives. Doug tries to live up to his obligations as father of Dylan and son of Marie, in whose house they live. Marie slips in and out of lucidity and is regularly on the lam from the nursing home that provides her care. Now that the town is being invaded by the followers of sightings of the Virgin Mary, Dylan take up with exotic newcomer Angela and her pals Desiree and Crispy. These kids are not bad, but they do some things that are fairly thoughtless, discovering along the way the consequences of their actions and gaining insight into their motivations and those of the adults who should be in charge, but clearly are not. Eclectic in spirit, exploring sexual desire, pondering the mysterious connections between people, there's nothing religious here, despite the title. Nor is virginity the topic, although Dylan loses his. It's just Lecesne gently laying bare both the humor and pain that accompany love and loss.-Carol A. Edwards, Denver Public Library, CO

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