"Best Books for Kids & Teens" - Canadian Children's
Book Centre 2008
Read what Lori has to say about Tattoo Heaven
Tattoo Heaven, my third book, began life as a short story – a rather long
one. The story contained all the kernels of the larger novel, except for the
friendship with Katie and the relationship with Alex, who inhabit the sub-plot
of the novel. This is a book about friendship. We often assume that
friendship can only blossom between people who are alike and who have
much in common. This may be true, in part, but the problem is finding those
common points. They often crop up in unexpected places and in unforeseen
ways. Jackie never thought she had anything in common with Theresa, a
sheltered girl battling leukemia, until she was forced to get to know her.
Like all my books, the spark for this one can from my life. When I was a kid,
for a very brief period of time a girl who was very sick lived across the street
from me, in a flat identical to my own. In a way, I thought of her like a mirror
image of me, except that she was sick where I was healthy. I never knew this
girl. She rarely came outside. No one really knew what she had, just that it
was a serious illness. Whenever she did come outside, she stood just like
she does in the book, all dressed up but standing perfectly still, as though
she was a mannequin and not a real girl. She scared me to death, mainly
because I knew her body carried death inside it, and I got the creeps looking
at her and thinking how someone my own age could be dying. I also felt the
way Jackie does, that I should be trying to do something for her, but had no
idea what that could be.
That image must have stayed with me, even though her stay on our street
was very brief, perhaps just one summer. The book ends up being very
much about what gives colour to a person’s life. The book opens with a dark
event, a father leaving home, but it is really about Jackie finding out that
people need colour (a metaphor for happiness, liveliness) to be full. Her
father finds it with his new girlfriend, Nicole, who gives colour to people’s
skin for a living. Jackie has to find it somehow in her own life and then, of
course, try to help Theresa find it as well. There are lots of images of white
surrounding Theresa, who has a disease where white blood cells outnumber
the red. I’ll stop here, or else I’ll give too much away.
Turning a short story into a novel (which I’ve done 3 times now), is
challenging. In a way, you have the scaffolding before you and only (ha!)
have to fit in the bricks and mortar. On the other hand, the novel often feels
laid out ahead of time, which isn’t something I like. Luckily, the character of
Nicole, who was Sylvie in the story, was one I was really anxious to develop.
I like Nicole and I wanted readers to like her, even though she’s the evil
“other woman.” She becomes a good role model for Jackie, I think. I am also
a step-mother to two girls in my own life and it is a role that has many
challenges, especially since our culture is saturated with images of evil step-
mothers (Snow White’s, Cinderella’s as prime examples). I was determined
to try to undo that stereotype, even slightly.
I worried most about my portrayal of Theresa, since I have no experience at
all of being close to someone, let alone a child, with leukemia. I hope I did it
and her justice, in the end. I did lots of research, but didn’t want the book to
be about the technical, medical side of the disease. I wanted it to be about
the human side of Theresa. I have no idea whatever happened to the real-
life Theresa. I can only hope she made it through.
Book Centre 2008
Read what Lori has to say about Tattoo Heaven
Tattoo Heaven, my third book, began life as a short story – a rather long
one. The story contained all the kernels of the larger novel, except for the
friendship with Katie and the relationship with Alex, who inhabit the sub-plot
of the novel. This is a book about friendship. We often assume that
friendship can only blossom between people who are alike and who have
much in common. This may be true, in part, but the problem is finding those
common points. They often crop up in unexpected places and in unforeseen
ways. Jackie never thought she had anything in common with Theresa, a
sheltered girl battling leukemia, until she was forced to get to know her.
Like all my books, the spark for this one can from my life. When I was a kid,
for a very brief period of time a girl who was very sick lived across the street
from me, in a flat identical to my own. In a way, I thought of her like a mirror
image of me, except that she was sick where I was healthy. I never knew this
girl. She rarely came outside. No one really knew what she had, just that it
was a serious illness. Whenever she did come outside, she stood just like
she does in the book, all dressed up but standing perfectly still, as though
she was a mannequin and not a real girl. She scared me to death, mainly
because I knew her body carried death inside it, and I got the creeps looking
at her and thinking how someone my own age could be dying. I also felt the
way Jackie does, that I should be trying to do something for her, but had no
idea what that could be.
That image must have stayed with me, even though her stay on our street
was very brief, perhaps just one summer. The book ends up being very
much about what gives colour to a person’s life. The book opens with a dark
event, a father leaving home, but it is really about Jackie finding out that
people need colour (a metaphor for happiness, liveliness) to be full. Her
father finds it with his new girlfriend, Nicole, who gives colour to people’s
skin for a living. Jackie has to find it somehow in her own life and then, of
course, try to help Theresa find it as well. There are lots of images of white
surrounding Theresa, who has a disease where white blood cells outnumber
the red. I’ll stop here, or else I’ll give too much away.
Turning a short story into a novel (which I’ve done 3 times now), is
challenging. In a way, you have the scaffolding before you and only (ha!)
have to fit in the bricks and mortar. On the other hand, the novel often feels
laid out ahead of time, which isn’t something I like. Luckily, the character of
Nicole, who was Sylvie in the story, was one I was really anxious to develop.
I like Nicole and I wanted readers to like her, even though she’s the evil
“other woman.” She becomes a good role model for Jackie, I think. I am also
a step-mother to two girls in my own life and it is a role that has many
challenges, especially since our culture is saturated with images of evil step-
mothers (Snow White’s, Cinderella’s as prime examples). I was determined
to try to undo that stereotype, even slightly.
I worried most about my portrayal of Theresa, since I have no experience at
all of being close to someone, let alone a child, with leukemia. I hope I did it
and her justice, in the end. I did lots of research, but didn’t want the book to
be about the technical, medical side of the disease. I wanted it to be about
the human side of Theresa. I have no idea whatever happened to the real-
life Theresa. I can only hope she made it through.
Reviews of Tattoo Heaven
Canadian Review of Materials
Kids Reader Views
Link to Lorimer Homepage for more
reviews
Canadian Review of Materials
Kids Reader Views
Link to Lorimer Homepage for more
reviews
