Razzle

by Ellen Wittlinger

Book Overview

One summer can change everything... Kenyon Baker is not happy about moving to Cape Cod halfway through high school, but his parents have decided to retire there to run a summer cottage colony. At least they'll let him have his own darkroom, provided he helps prepare the colony for guests. The early hours and hard work compound Ken's unhappiness, but just when he thinks he'll never make it through the summer, he meets Razzle Penney. Skinny, buzz-cut...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689856008
• ISBN13: 9780689856006
• Release Date: March 2003
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 14 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Richie's Picks: RAZZLE

Ellen Wittlinger has done it again! Count me among the multitude of readers who have been impatiently awaiting the next young adult novel from the author who's extraordinary HARD LOVE (1999) was awarded a Printz Honor. The wait is just about over, and the new book is a delightful and stunning must-read for teens and anyone associated with young adult literature. Meet Kenyon Baker: "Consider me confused. Aren't there any other people on this planet like me? There never seems to be a place I fit in. Unless I'm alone in my darkroom, of course. But I don't think you can count it as fitting in if you're alone." Meet Razzle Penney: "She was as tall as me but even skinnier, and even though she was walking fast, her long arms and legs seemed to sort of swirl around her in this lazy way, like all the joints weren't connected up quite right. Her buzz cut hairdo and the black short shorts and tank top added to the vision of a leggy bug or a jellyfish swimming over to us." We meet Kenyon, the last-born of relatively older parents, after he is transplanted from Boston to Cape Cod where his newly retired parents have bought a group of vacation rental cottages. He meets Razzle at the town dumps where she runs the Swap Shop (the recycling center). In RAZZLE, as with HARD LOVE, the author writes in a seductively warm and gentle manner as she draws us into an important and entertaining story about growing up, first love, loyalty to yourself and others, friendship, prejudice, and dealing with your parents as you become yourself. The fashion in which Wittlinger can capture so many relevant themes in such a reader-friendly story firmly places her among today's great YA authors. Her characters are unusual, unpredictable, and unforgettable. Furthermore, as was the case with HARD LOVE, the mother-child relationships are central to this story. It makes me wonder if, deep down, Wittlinger's greatest aspiration is to guide today's future mothers to an understanding of how their behavior and beliefs will reverberate in the actions and reactions of their future children. Whether or not this is the author's intent, it will be the fortunate result for the perceptive teen reader. Finally, this book offers another lovely view of Cape Cod. Despite my growing up on and near the lovely beaches of Long Island, I've nevertheless mourned for ages over never having gotten to see the Cape, where Dicey and the other Tillerman kids had grown up. I think that RAZZLE has pushed me over the edge in my resolve to experience it sooner or later.

RAZZLE is both funny and touching.

"Life has been one long snooze," Kenyon Baker tells us in the fist line of Ellen Wittlinger's new novel, RAZZLE. He's been the nice boy for so long. None of the girls at his mother's private school notice him at all. No one questions his goody two shoes status and no one asks Kenyon if he is happy. So when Ken's parents retire and move to Cape Cod, Ken isn't too upset --- especially after striking a deal with his parents. In exchange for his helping to rehabilitate some rundown cottages, Kenyon gets the use of one for the summer. He savors the idea of having his own place. And he really likes the idea of having his own darkroom. Ken decides to explore his new environment through the lens of his camera. Or at least that's the plan. Then he meets a strange girl during a trip to the town dump with his mother. Razzle, named for the angel of mysteries, lives with her grandmother, brother, and a dozen dogs. Her mother isn't around very often. She has never left Cape Cod and doesn't want to. Razzle likes Ken but she doesn't like Harley, the local cool girl. Harley has all the boys begging for her attention and when she begins to take an interest in Kenyon, Razzle warns him that Harley will eventually hurt him. Ken, being male, refuses to listen. He doesn't want to believe such a beauty could be evil. Razzle must then watch as Harley has Ken running in circles, twisting their friendship and getting him to make compromises with his photography. RAZZLE is both funny and touching. Wittlinger unfolds a story about friendship and change with great skill. I especially appreciate her portrait of the people who live year-round in a place where most other people only go for pleasure. While she shies away from the most famous towns on the Cape, like Provincetown, she does manage to give a glimpse of what life there is like for natives while showing a complete picture of a smaller town. People on Cape Cod say that once you begin to recognize the smell of the Cape, or get its sand in your shoes, you'll always return. Take Ellen Wittlinger's invitation and get sand in your shoes by reading RAZZLE! --- Reviewed by Cassia Van Arsdale

Read This Book NOW

This is the best Ellen Wittlinger book I have ever read - high praise for a wonderful author with other amazing books. Fifteen year old Kenyon is resentful that his parents bought a group of vacation cabins in Cape Cod and moved him there without asking so they could enjoy a peaceful retirement in picture perfect settings. He's been enlisted to fix up the dilapidated buildings when he'd rather be taking endless rolls of film and exploring the different angles and facets of photography.As the summer progresses, he develops a friendship with Razzle Penney - weirdo extraordinaire, but great person and wonderfully crafted character. A relationship with sexy but shallow Harley threatens to ruin everything he has with Razzle and others in the small town. You won't want to put this book down. The characters are some of the most vivid I have ever read about. I wanted it to keep going forever.

Imspiring and Amazing

When young photographer Kenyon Baker moves to Cape Cod with his predjudiced, elderly parents he expects to face a summer of boredom fixing up the resort his parents bought. But when he meets eccetric, crazy Razzle at the town dump he begins to love his new town and Razzles oddness.But when sexy, beautiful Harley, Razzle's sworn enemy takes an interest in Kenyon it threatens to ruin his friendship with Razzle, and when Razzle's mother comes into town and tells more than anyone wanted to know about Razzle's past evryone is forced to realize diffricult things.The best thing about this book are the funky,original characters.It is one of the best books I have ever read.

Dazzling

Kenyon, who has always been a good kid, but lonely, friendless, and dorky, moves to a small town at the tip of Cape Cod when his parents buy a cluster of vacation cottages there. The first person he meets is Razzle. Razzle is...different, a freak and a half, but is interesting and real. Then Kenyon falls for Harley who is beautiful, sexy, but toys with people's feelings, and has an ongoing feud with Razzle. Kenyon must choose between normalcy, with the "I have a beautiful girlfriend" benefits package, and ostracism(for being friends with a freak like Razzle), with a benefits package of having a real friend. Very intense and funny in parts, and well-written and sincere.