Two Utah authors have recently published novels for young readers. Louise Plummer and Donald Marshall both teach at Brigham Young University and have received local awards for their writing.
While both books are realistic fiction, actions of the protagonists in each express diverse levels of personal survival; endurance of neglect and abuse, and coming of age.ENCHANTRESS OF CRUMBLEDOWN. Donald R. Marshall. Deseret Book Company, 1990. $9.95. 229 pages.
This is a story of three neglected children who run away from their foster home and find a deserted house ("it looked sadly neglected and tumbledown; some of the windows were boarded up, some were partly broken out, and the weathered door hung crookedly from a single hinge") and an old lady, Cassandra du Maurier. It is this witch of a woman who is the main thread throughout the story.
While the reader feels secure that the children will survive in spite of their past abuses, the question is about the Enchantress: Is she really a famous actress? A messenger from the Duke? The missing Anastasia of Russia? Is she a thief and crazy?
Marshall gives hints such as "Her hair was silver in the moonlight but her nose and chin were not nearly as pointed as they had all three imagined" and "though her lined face was definitely old, there was something so young about her eyes." But Cassie is still a mystery. It isn't until the end that her true identity is disclosed; she's a runaway, herself.
Tucked in the story are subtle and sometimes blatant moral expressions, minilessons of good intention: "If you want something very, very badly, then you simply must do something about it . . . Even the ordinary people are extraordinary. They just don't know it." and "An ounce of imagination is far more precious than a ton of drugs." Probably the summarization of Cassie's involvement with the children is her notion that "You make summer in your hearts!!"
"Enchantress of Crumbledown" is a pleasing story that makes running away seem like a logical solution. While real life might not let berries grow so handily on bushes, young readers - all of us - want a mystic in our lives that asks, "Have you been taking pretty pills?" or reminds us: "Sing me a sunburst! Whistle me a rainbow! Laugh me fields of buttercups! Whisper me a butterfly!"
"Enchantress of Crumbledown" is the winner of the 1988 Utah Arts Council Writing Contest, children's book division and winner of the 1989 Deseret Book Children's Book Contest, chapter book - fiction category.
MY NAME IS SUS5AN SMITH. THE 5 IS SILENT. Louise Plummer. Delacorte, 1991. 217 pages, $15.
After winning the master's award in the high school art show, Sus5an goes to Boston for a summer with her Aunt Libby. She feels an attachment to her aunt who, like herself, "dances to a different drummer" than the conservative life of Springville, Utah.
But Sus5an isn't prepared for the experiences in Boston; finding Uncle Willy who deserted Aunt Marianne years before and realizing the passion she feels for him. Too, the competition for exhibiting her art on the circuit is much more fierce than she realized.
When Willy turns out to be the slime that everyone knew he was, Sus5an finds that things don't work out the way she had intended. "It turned out that I was wrong and everyone else was right. I'm not sure I know what I should do anymore."
Sus5an (who used a number in her name to distinguish herself from all the other Susan Smiths in the world) learns on her own that growing up isn't an easy process.
There's an interesting balance in Plummer's story; individuality juxtaposed to conformity, artistic perceptions vs. primal survival.
"My Name is Sus5an Smith. The 5 is Silent" is a rich story that flaunts basic human values while allowing a protagonist to stretch past them and test them for herself. They're valuable lessons here that are never stated didactically or allowed to permeate the storyline.
Plummer received an Honorable Mention in the third Delacorte Press first young novel contest for her previous book, "The Romantic Obsessions and Humiliations of Annie Sehlmeier."