Review by Garay, Lucía, Laprovitta, Anahí and López, Cintia
“Ever played chicken? Bram asks.” Kathy Stinson writes a piquant short story where an adolescent girl is the main character. This girl, of unknown name, is eager to prove her own limits and at the same time is discovering her sexuality. “Chicken” is a game that invites participants to test their boundaries, and at the same time is the word that the author chooses as the title for this short story taken from the book 101 Ways to Dance.
Stinson presents two characters, Bram who is described as a risk taker and a girl, who is portrayed as a role model to be. After finishing painting the church basement, the girl and Bram decided to play Chicken this brand new, exciting and dangerous game. Chicken’s aim is to see who would be the first one that chickens out; “Now, as slow or as fast as you want, move your finger down until one of us says stop. Whoever says it first is the chicken.” Now the girl has to take a decision, should her go on or should her stop? It is an engaging story until the end because you want to go on reading in order to know what she decides.
Summing up, this story fosters an interesting alternative to deal with a delicate issue as sexuality; it brings also into discussion other significant topics such as trespassing boundaries and taking decisions. We highly recommend this appealing story because it helps young adults to reflect upon aspects of sexuality that many adults would rather avoid and that we know teenagers are urged to explore.
I really like your job. It's very clear. However, I don't like much how the phrase "This girl, of unknown name," sounds. I think it might sound better if you would have written ''This girl, whose name is unknown,'
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I still feel that the fact that the girl's name is unknow is something irrelevant and not so important to mention.
well done! :)