Metamorphosis
Junior Year
By Betsy Franco; Tom Franco (Illustrator)
(Candlewick, Hardcover, 9780763637651, 128pp.)
Publication Date: October 13, 2009
Categories: Legends, Myths, & Fables - Greek & Roman, Social Issues - Adolescence, Social Issues - Drugs, Alcohol, & Substance Abuse
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He’s a young artist obsessed with myths. But can he fix his own fate? Acclaimed author Betsy Franco and her talented son collaborate on a hip YA novel of "epic" proportions.
Life. Love. Death. Identity. Ovid’s got a lot on his mind, and he pours it all — as confessions, observations, narrative poems, and drawings — into the pages of a notebook. Inspired by his namesake, he wryly records his classmates’ dramas as modern-day Roman mythology. There’s Sophie and Caleb, the Psyche and Cupid of cyber-couples; poetic Paula, who pursues filmmaker Franny like Apollo chasing Daphne; and graphic novelist Duwayne, a Proserpina shuttling between divorced parents. Meanwhile, Ovid hides his own Olympian struggles: his meth addict sister Thena has run off, leaving him with a suffocating home life and a disturbing secret. In her striking YA debut, Betsy Franco introduces an expressive soul with a heartbreakingly authentic voice. Fantastical ink illustrations by her son Tom Franco enhance the intimate tone, delving deep into one intriguing teen’s imagination.
Betsy Franco has written more than thirty books and anthologies for children. She originally wrote METAMORPHOSIS as a collection of poems, which called to mind her son Tom’s notebook and journal drawings. She lives in California.
Tom Franco has been a creative artist since the age of thirteen. The drawings in METAMORPHOSIS were created during his high-school years and reworked as a series for this book. He lives in California.
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