Seventeen Against the Dealer is the final novel in the seven-part Tillerman Cycle. The novel takes up the story of Dicey Tillerman, now 21, who has dropped out of college despite a scholarship in order to start her own business building wooden sailboats. Dicey is the oldest of four Tillerman children, whose journey to Crisfield, Maryland and subsequent life there with their grandmother, Abigail Tillerman, or Gram as the children call her, is described in the preceding novels Homecoming, Dicey's Song, and Sons from Afar.
As a continuation of the preceding Tillerman novels, this novel contains characters developed in the previous Tillerman books, notably Dicey's siblings James (now 18), Maybeth (16), and Sammy (15); her boyfriend Jeff Greene (23); her friend Mina Smiths (21), and Gram, the Tillerman's maternal grandmother with whom they have lived for 8 years.
The book is set in around 1986, and the events of the novel take place over a short time-span, between New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day. At the start of the novel, Dicey is just beginning her new boatbuilding business, which she has dropped out of college to start. To learn the trade, she has worked hard in a series of low-paid jobs in Annapolis and Crisfield and now she has built up a small amount of savings that she hopes will enable her to start realizing her dream. Dicey becomes increasingly absorbed in and even obsessed by her work, to the detriment of her relationship with Jeff, who asks Dicey to marry him at the start of the book, explaining that he does not want to have a casual relationship with her. Dicey makes some crucial mistakes in her new business, including failing to take out insurance on the tools and equipment in her workshop. When the workshop is broken into, she loses all she has and cannot make it up, despite help from Jeff. Increasingly desperate, Dicey takes help from a smooth-talking drifter who turns out to be a con artist. Eventually Dicey stacks the odds against herself and has to close up shop. As Dicey's preoccupation with her work increases, her family and friends fade from the pages of the novel, reflecting her neglect of them. Eventually, after a series of crises culminating in Gram's serious illness, Dicey realizes that her relationships are as important, if not more so, as her work..
The novel also develops, albeit in a lesser way, the characters of the other three Tillerman children, now young adults. James is a stellar student at Yale but as in previous novels experiences problems associated with reason and ethics. He has made close friends - including with Toby, whom he meets in Dicey's Song and is a chess aficionado. Maybeth has grown into a beautiful young woman, who has many female friends and is attractive to men - yet she is still studying hard and failing most classes in school. As she is courted by older men, the novel is haunted by the danger that she could repeat the mistakes of her mother, who left home to pursue an affair with a drifter twelve years her senior. Sammy is a hardworking young man who has a part-time job pumping gas in a service station; he has learned to take apart engines and helps the Tillermans buy their first car. He is a budding tennis star and wants to attend an expensive tennis summer camp.
The Tillermans' home has grown from an isolated place into a centre for social activity - on New Year's Day, for example, a tradition has grown up whereby family and friends gather at the Tillerman home, and a festive meal is eaten with singing and merriment. Gram is a central part of this, having grown considerably since her days of extreme isolation and loneliness.
Although Voigt's characters grow and learn over the course of the novel, the ending does not provide any definite resolutions or total closure. The characters still face difficulties and problems, and it is not clear how marriage to Jeff, for example, will bring Dicey, a hardworking and independent young woman, a resolution to her need and desire to express her independence through work.
Cynthia Voigt is an American writer of books for young adults dealing with various topics such as adventure, mystery, racism and child abuse. Her first book in the Tillerman family series, Homecoming, was nominated for several international prizes and adapted as a 1996 film. Her novel Dicey's Song won the 1983 Newbery Medal.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a young adult novel by Ann Brashares published in 2001. It follows the adventures of four best friends — Lena Kaligaris, Tibby Rollins, Bridget Vreeland, and Carmen Lowell, who will be spending their first summer apart when a magical pair of jeans comes into their lives, turning their summer upside down. The book was adapted into a film of the same name in 2005. Four sequels to the book have been published, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood; Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood; Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood; and Sisterhood Everlasting.
Sammy Keyes is a series of mystery novels written by Wendelin Van Draanen for children aged 10–16. The series focuses on Sammy's adventures as an amateur sleuth. The books, which are narrated in the first-person perspective by Sammy, involve detective fiction as well as comedy. Sammy begins her adventures in the first book as a seventh-grader, and the series ends when she completes the eighth grade. The series ran for eighteen books.
How late it was, how late is a 1994 stream-of-consciousness novel written by Scottish writer James Kelman. The Glasgow-centred work is written in a working-class Scottish dialect, and follows Sammy, a shoplifter and ex-convict.
Homecoming is a 1996 American made-for-television drama film starring Anne Bancroft.
Dicey's Song is a novel by Cynthia Voigt. It won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1983.
The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by the Australian author Markus Zusak, set in Nazi Germany during World War II. Published in 2005, The Book Thief became an international bestseller and was translated into 63 languages and sold 16 million copies. It was adapted into the 2013 feature film, The Book Thief.
A Solitary Blue (1983) is a novel by Cynthia Voigt. It was a Newbery Honor book in 1984. It is the third book of the Tillerman Cycle, set concurrently with Dicey's Song and Come a Stranger. It revolves around Jeff Greene, a boy who struggles after being abandoned by his mother at age 7.
Sammy Jo Carrington is a fictional character on the ABC television series Dynasty, created by Richard and Esther Shapiro. The niece of central protagonist Krystle Carrington, Sammy Jo marries and has a son with Steven Carrington.
Homecoming is a 1981 young adult novel by American children's author Cynthia Voigt. It is the first of seven novels in the Tillerman Cycle. It was adapted into a television film.
Sons From Afar (1987) is the sixth book in Cynthia Voigt's Tillerman Cycle, the series of novels dealing with Dicey Tillerman's family which also includes Homecoming, Dicey's Song, The Runner, A Solitary Blue, Come A Stranger, and Seventeen Against the Dealer.
The Tillerman Cycle is a series of children's novels by the author Cynthia Voigt. Currently there are seven titles in the series.
Tricks is a young adult verse novel by Ellen Hopkins, released in August 2009. It tells the converging narratives of five troubled teenage protagonists. It is noted for its gritty realism in addressing issues of sexual activity and drug use for a young adult readership. It has been banned in some places due to its references to drug use, sexual themes and language.
Stranger with My Face is a young adult horror novel by Lois Duncan, first published in 1981. The novel is about Laurie Stratton, who is seen by others in places she knows she could not be. She discovers that she has an identical sister named Lia who has been visiting her town using astral projection, which involves sending her soul outside her body. Laurie learns astral projection and uses it to look for her sister. During this time, Lia's spirit takes control of Laurie's body. The story describes Laurie's struggle to take back control of her body. The novel explores themes of appearance versus true self and the idea of a double, someone similar but not quite the same as someone else. Duncan got the idea for the book after hearing about the concept of astral projection, which she thought would make a great plot for a novel. In 2011, the novel was updated with text to modernize the content.
The Cardturner is a novel written by Newbery Medal winner Louis Sachar and published by Delacorte Press in May 2010.
What Happened to Goodbye is a young adult novel by Sarah Dessen. The book chronicles the life of a teenage girl, Mclean, and her journey of self-discovery. The book was released on May 10, 2011, by Viking. It received mainly positive critical reception.
A Day Late and a Dollar Short (2002) is Terry McMillan's fifth novel. It is about a family in Las Vegas in 1994. Family charts in the end pages assist readers in keeping track of who is who in the large and dysfunctional Price family.
The Sky Is Everywhere is a 2010 young adult novel by Jandy Nelson as her debut novel. It tells the story of an American high school girl, Lennie Walker, struggling to cope with the sudden death of her older sister. Lennie becomes romantically involved both with her sister's former fiancé, who shares Lennie's grief and loss, and with a new boy in town, who shares Lennie's love of music. Ultimately, Lennie must choose between the two relationships. A film adaptation from A24 and Apple TV+ was released on February 11, 2022. It stars Grace Kaufman, Pico Alexander, Jacques Colimon, Cherry Jones, and Jason Segel.
Viragaya is a 1956 novel written by Martin Wickremasinghe. The novel is considered an outstanding work in modern Sinhalese fiction due to the significance of its theme and the sophistication of its technique. The story is based on a virtuous character called Aravinda, a Sinhalese youth raised in a traditional Buddhist family in the South.
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