SuitabookTo take a Dare
Crescent Dragonwagon, Paul Zindel
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside the child, checking in around the family abuse, sexual experiences, STI and unresolved difficulties. Afterwards, discuss which forms of help are available when caring for someone exceeds one person’s capacity.
- Themes
- Family harm and neglect: Chrysta lives with damaging parental responses, while Dare and other young people experience abandonment or harmful care. The narrative examines how difficult family circumstances affect young people’s choices and relationships, without making those circumstances disappear.
- Sexuality, attention and vulnerability: The book addresses sexuality, attention and vulnerability; the detail of how it is developed remains unclear. The book depicts sexual experiences, relationships and vulnerability; the detail and tone of this treatment remain unclear.
- Survival and responsibility: Chrysta leaves home, travels, creates a new identity and takes in Dare while trying to establish work and stability. Independence and care are shown as meaningful but difficult; Chrysta’s inability to help Dare leaves the outcome unsettled rather than offering a simple rescue story.
- Worth knowing
- Parents may wish to know that sexual activity, smoking cannabis, alcohol, an STI, sexual harassment, emotional abuse, parental abandonment, running away and difficult family relationships are all part of the story.