The Tulip Touch

Product Information

Narrator Natalie's parents manage hotels, and while she is still at primary school, with a younger brother at the screaming stage, the family take charge of a hundred-room residence called The Palace and its grounds. Despite much repair work needing to be done the hotel is a warren for her to explore and lose herself in. Soon afterwards she and her father come across a solitary waif standing in a nearby field and take her under their wing, but it is soon clear that Tulip is a very strange, even a dangerous individual.

At the close of the novel, Natalie has moved to a new hotel with her family and things are going well for them. Her family, teachers, and the community all criticise Tulip, but Natalie feels immense guilt over what happened. Although she was too young to recognise the signs of abuse, Natalie wonders why the adults in their lives never helped Tulip. [2] Major themes [ edit ] This is essentially a book about bullying or a very toxic friendship. The toxicity of Tulip's words and attitude most of the time astounded me and the way she manipulated Natalie to do her bidding. But who was at fault really? I couldn't decide by the end. It did seem that Natalie allowed herself to be caught up in Tulip's world, and all the nastiness that came with it. (From their silly little games, to being nasty to the adults, to asking a mother if her dead daughter can come out to play.) But she also managed to cut Tulip out of her life after one particularly nasty incident. But not before what feels like a couple of years have gone by. And adult readers may also pause to consider how even grown-ups can be powerless to change situations, either because of their own inadequacies or because systems aren't in place to allow justice to be done. Through moral ambiguities, challenges and personal courage we are led along the narrative path this novel hastens to take us. urn:lcp:tuliptouchnovel00fine:epub:366553c0-df1b-44d2-afaa-1bbb8e6e9166 Extramarc University of Alberta Libraries Foldoutcount 0 Identifier tuliptouchnovel00fine Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t2g748h6j Isbn 0316283258

My Book Notes

I remember your visit vividly because I was an avid, avid reader of your books. You coming to town was like having a famous pop star parachute in for the day. The excitement of having an actual, real author come to speak to us! Someone whose books I could reach out and touch on the library shelves in the children’s section upstairs where you did your event. The Tulip Touch is a children's novel written by Anne Fine and published in 1996. The book raises questions of morality and accountability, as well as exploring the question of nature versus nurture. It won the Whitbread Award and was Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal. The peerless vigour of Fine's writing, and the provocative question of whether our society is even trying to catch its 'evil' ones as they fall, make this an extraordinary powerful novel.

She skives off school, cheeks the teachers and makes herself unpopular with her classmates by telling awful lies. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2010-11-23 19:21:54 Boxid IA134802 Boxid_2 CH122801 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City Boston Donor urn:oclc:877385881 Scandate 20110601223317 Scanner scribe8.shenzhen.archive.org Scanningcenter shenzhen Worldcat (source edition)

Keep the conversation in third person with questions like ‘Why do you think Natalie likes Tulip?’ or ‘Why is she popular with some girls and not others?’. Avoid words like ‘wrong’ but let your daughter put them into the conversation if she wants. Better terms are ‘helpful / unhelpful’ or ‘useful / not useful’ to show she can discuss these ideas without being labelled herself. This is also a great opportunity to open conversations about changing schools and what she hopes for the new school.