Graveyard Girl: Stories

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

Wendy Lewis breaks new ground in Canadian young-adult fiction with this
excellent collection of a dozen linked stories. Eschewing the typical
adolescent central character, Lewis utilizes a woman in her mid-30s,
Ginger, who opens the collection with a “prologue” and closes it
with the title story, both occurring on June 19, 1999.

The book’s connecting motif is a 1982 high-school re-creation of the
Diana–Charles “Wedding of the Century.” Each of the remaining 10
stories, which are divided equally between two dated sections, is told
from the perspective of someone who had a role in the mock wedding. The
1983 grouping features the stories of five teens who had played leading
parts in the previous year’s entertainment; the 1993 grouping contains
the stories of adolescents who, as young children 11 years before, had
been the wedding’s flower girls and pages.

Their stories all reflect the inevitability of change. For example, in
“Tango,” Jewel, a.k.a. Princess Di, who married at 19 because of an
unplanned pregnancy, quarrels with her mother; in “You Never Knew,”
Tish finds a friendship forever changed when she unwittingly reveals her
true feelings while engaging in “kissing practice” with her best
friend; delinquent Michelle, in “Rosetta Stone,” finds her life
transformed while performing community service as a companion to a
93-year-old widow.

Fantasy elements are believably incorporated into some of the stories,
and two utilize different literary forms: “Loose Chippings” consists
of journal entries as well as “To David” letters that Frances
composes during an Ireland holiday; 19 of David’s free-verse poems
constitute the following piece, “The Hag Stone.” Though the stories
can readily be enjoyed by junior-high readers, Graveyard Girl’s
contents will likely resonate more with those in senior high, as well as
adults. Highly recommended.