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Dancing Naked (Orca $8.95)
Shelley Hrdlitschka hoped to call her teen novel Dancing Naked in the Moonlight, but it sounded too much like a romance novel. The title was shortened to Dancing Naked (Orca $8.95) by her publisher. Now the grade-12- boy hired to create the book's website is having trouble getting the name accepted by some search engines--because the novel about a teenage pregnancy might be a porn link. The irony does not escape Hrdlitschka (pronounced Herda-lich-ka). Dancing Naked reflects her worries as a parent that sex is everywhere-advertising come-ons are rampant-in a world that expects kids to be abstinent. "I'm writing teen fiction and I have teenage daughters,"; she says, "so sometimes I wonder if I'm writing out my nightmares.";
Kia, the 16-year-old lead character in Dancing Naked, gets pregnant, having properly used a condom during her first and only tryst. The father of her child is not a mature, responsible or even particularly likeable guy. Maybe it is a mistake to sleep with someone for their looks, but that's hardly an error made only by adolescents.
At the hospital for her baby's birth, Kia visits an 80-year-old woman named Grace who is dying of cancer. They first met when Kia had volunteered at a senior's 'home.' Confined to a wheelchair, Grace tells Kia a story from her own youth. "Our heads are often at odds with our bodies,"; Grace tells Kia, "and it doesn't change in old age. I still feel young at heart. I'd like to jump out of this wheelchair and dance naked in the moonlight, but, obviously I can't. When I was young and lithe, I didn't, because my head told my body not to. Now it's the other way around.";
Shelley Hrdlitschka lives in a quiet North Vancouver neighbourhood, wholesome not wealthy, where bear attacks used to be her primary worry. Now her concerns are broader. Dancing Naked includes a fabulously gay youth group leader, Justin, both sides of the abortion issue, Kia, who is overcome by physical desires, and Grace, the octogenarian who regrets she never danced naked in the moonlight.
It's one thing to discuss Madonna as a feminist, but how can a young person really figure out the complicated ways that sex is power, without getting it all mixed up?
Help is needed. As a member of the Unitarian Church, Hrdlitschka is not keen on judging and preaching or forcing models of behaviour onto young people. Instead she tries to empathize with the tough choices they face. Hrdlitschka respects the curiosities of the body, while doing everything she can to inform the mind. "If you talk to a 16-year-old, you'd be amazed at how naïve they really are. The way I address it as a parent, and this comes through loud and clear in the book, is through education.";
Her oldest daughter attends a human sexuality course called OWL at the Unitarian Church. It's a 26-week course, and the acronym stands for 'Our Whole Lives.' "They address everything you can imagine,"; says Hrdlitschka, "By the end of it kids have absolutely no questions anymore. The idea of practicing putting on a condom with a banana is such a great idea! Most of us learn at the wrong time.";
For a girl, who can start to feel that acting out sexually is part of being a 'modern woman,' part of asserting herself, part of gaining equality with men, sexuality brings with it complicated issues.
"I think most parents would rather their children become adults before being sexually active, but how can you really expect that in the society we live in? My kids watch re-runs of Friends while I'm making dinner at night, and that's all about sex. My nine-year-old sits there, taking it all in. As for books, I would never tell my kids they can't read something. I find that when they're not ready for something they don't read it anyway.";
After becoming pregnant, Kia almost has an abortion. She jumps off the medical table at the last moment, crying out for them to stop. This is the closest Hrdlitschka comes to expressing her opinion on the procedure.
The challenge now is to get Dancing Naked in the proper hands. Hrdlitschka hopes it will be used as a vehicle of discussion between a mother and daughter.
"We used to live in Surrey, and there is no way our kids would have read this book in their class. I don't ever try to talk down to teens and I don't have a certain 'teen fiction' style. It's the story that matters most. You don't dumb it down, you just choose something they care about. Sex is definitely one of those things.";
Hrdlitschka got to share the process of writing with her daughters, who advised her at the dinner table if a certain idea was boring or silly. Her oldest daughter helped revise the email sections of the book, putting the email letters into proper teen talk.
"It's important to tell a well-paced story. Kids who are used to instant messaging and DVD's won't wade through boring parts. It's called writing books for the instant gratification generation.";
Dancing Naked follows Hrdlitschka's Beans on Toast, about a teenage girl coping with her parents' divorce, and two novels about twin teenage boys who were separated at birth, Disconnected and Tangled Web. Dancing 1-55143-210-2; Disconnected 1-55143-105-X; Tangled Web 1-55143-178-5
[Lisa Kerr / BCBW 2001]
Kia, the 16-year-old lead character in Dancing Naked, gets pregnant, having properly used a condom during her first and only tryst. The father of her child is not a mature, responsible or even particularly likeable guy. Maybe it is a mistake to sleep with someone for their looks, but that's hardly an error made only by adolescents.
At the hospital for her baby's birth, Kia visits an 80-year-old woman named Grace who is dying of cancer. They first met when Kia had volunteered at a senior's 'home.' Confined to a wheelchair, Grace tells Kia a story from her own youth. "Our heads are often at odds with our bodies,"; Grace tells Kia, "and it doesn't change in old age. I still feel young at heart. I'd like to jump out of this wheelchair and dance naked in the moonlight, but, obviously I can't. When I was young and lithe, I didn't, because my head told my body not to. Now it's the other way around.";
Shelley Hrdlitschka lives in a quiet North Vancouver neighbourhood, wholesome not wealthy, where bear attacks used to be her primary worry. Now her concerns are broader. Dancing Naked includes a fabulously gay youth group leader, Justin, both sides of the abortion issue, Kia, who is overcome by physical desires, and Grace, the octogenarian who regrets she never danced naked in the moonlight.
It's one thing to discuss Madonna as a feminist, but how can a young person really figure out the complicated ways that sex is power, without getting it all mixed up?
Help is needed. As a member of the Unitarian Church, Hrdlitschka is not keen on judging and preaching or forcing models of behaviour onto young people. Instead she tries to empathize with the tough choices they face. Hrdlitschka respects the curiosities of the body, while doing everything she can to inform the mind. "If you talk to a 16-year-old, you'd be amazed at how naïve they really are. The way I address it as a parent, and this comes through loud and clear in the book, is through education.";
Her oldest daughter attends a human sexuality course called OWL at the Unitarian Church. It's a 26-week course, and the acronym stands for 'Our Whole Lives.' "They address everything you can imagine,"; says Hrdlitschka, "By the end of it kids have absolutely no questions anymore. The idea of practicing putting on a condom with a banana is such a great idea! Most of us learn at the wrong time.";
For a girl, who can start to feel that acting out sexually is part of being a 'modern woman,' part of asserting herself, part of gaining equality with men, sexuality brings with it complicated issues.
"I think most parents would rather their children become adults before being sexually active, but how can you really expect that in the society we live in? My kids watch re-runs of Friends while I'm making dinner at night, and that's all about sex. My nine-year-old sits there, taking it all in. As for books, I would never tell my kids they can't read something. I find that when they're not ready for something they don't read it anyway.";
After becoming pregnant, Kia almost has an abortion. She jumps off the medical table at the last moment, crying out for them to stop. This is the closest Hrdlitschka comes to expressing her opinion on the procedure.
The challenge now is to get Dancing Naked in the proper hands. Hrdlitschka hopes it will be used as a vehicle of discussion between a mother and daughter.
"We used to live in Surrey, and there is no way our kids would have read this book in their class. I don't ever try to talk down to teens and I don't have a certain 'teen fiction' style. It's the story that matters most. You don't dumb it down, you just choose something they care about. Sex is definitely one of those things.";
Hrdlitschka got to share the process of writing with her daughters, who advised her at the dinner table if a certain idea was boring or silly. Her oldest daughter helped revise the email sections of the book, putting the email letters into proper teen talk.
"It's important to tell a well-paced story. Kids who are used to instant messaging and DVD's won't wade through boring parts. It's called writing books for the instant gratification generation.";
Dancing Naked follows Hrdlitschka's Beans on Toast, about a teenage girl coping with her parents' divorce, and two novels about twin teenage boys who were separated at birth, Disconnected and Tangled Web. Dancing 1-55143-210-2; Disconnected 1-55143-105-X; Tangled Web 1-55143-178-5
[Lisa Kerr / BCBW 2001]
Submitted on June 3, 2003 in By David.
