The Juniper Game [Hardcover]

Sherryl Jordan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1991

Juniper, a fifteen-year-old girl with telepathic powers, convinces her best friend, Dylan, to experiment with her powers.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-10-- Take an almost perfect teenage girl and have her notice a bumbling but talented artistic boy and combine them with time-travel, ESP, and medieval witchcraft and lore. The result is a Julian Thompson cast in a Margaret Mahy plot. There is, no doubt, an audience for fantasy that seems grounded in this contemporary reality of high school and single-parent households. Yet Dylan's artistic abilities and Juniper's telepathic powers never take on reality. The time traveling that takes the daring young woman into medieval times and the visions that she sends her friend to sketch never quiver or seem subject to any human failings. Even the trappings that could help readers buy into the fantasy, such as Juniper's completely medieval room, seem artificial. Real life, on the other hand is very hard--so difficult that breezy competent Juniper panics just crossing a shallow ford, and fails to realize that her popular boyfriend is a jerk--until he almost kills her. Dylan's home life is such a disaster that readers will wonder where he gets the energy to receive Juniper's mental images of another time and to render his perfect drawings. Jordan's fiery ending pulls together threads of story and, without dodging or prettifying, provides that climax to which all the earlier suspense has been leading. This is the best part of the book, and, while melodramatic, it has a genuineness and excitement that satisfies. It almost makes the book worthwhile. But not quite. --Carol A. Edwards, Buckham Memorial Library, Faribault, MN
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A 14-year-old finds herself psychically linked with a young woman who was burned as a witch in medieval England. Juniper, whose wide interests include reincarnation and time travel, drags feckless Dylan Pidgley into her experiments with telepathy because he is a marvelous artist and can draw the scenes she transmits. Some of these are from the past-- experiences of a young mother and herb-wife, Joanna. Juniper's mother warns Dylan that Juniper can be heedless, but Dylan is too fascinated by Juniper and by his own vision of Joanna's plight to withdraw. Events rush to a conclusion as Joanna is tried by the ordeal of water and then burned, with Juniper in danger of being pulled into a 20th-century parallel. Fortunately, Juniper and Dylan together find the strength to shield Joanna from the agony of her burning. With vividly depicted, believable characters, this is superior fantasy. Though Dylan is drawn like a moth to Juniper's flame, she soon realizes that he has a strength and grace that her sexier, older boyfriend lacks. Playing their drama against the death of a young woman in the past--whose love of knowledge resembles Juniper's, but whose quest leads to tragedy rather than love--gives the story poignancy and depth. (Fiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Trade (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590447289
• ISBN-13: 978-0590447287
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,813,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!!!!, May 1, 1999

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This review is from: The Juniper Game (Hardcover)

I was so shocked to discover that this book is out of print. It is one of the best books I've ever read, right up there with Donna Jo Napoli's and Philip Pullman's stuff. The plot looks really weird, but once you're into it, you won't be able to put it down, read it, read it, read it!! See if it's in the library--that's probably easier than an out-of-print order. A Time Of Darkness (by the same author) is also EXCELLENT. Other out of print books I highly recommend are The Silver Crown and A Pack Of Lies: 12 stories in one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing, November 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Juniper Game (Point) (Paperback)

I bought and read this book about eight years ago. I still have it and have read it many times. The mind is a wonderful tool and this book was one of the first pieces I ever read that had anything to do with the ways of the it, and the ignoring of the norms associated with the use of the mind. Spirituality and mind and body energies are essential to many people today. I fell in love with the personality of the characters... I have since reading this book, made a promise to myself to name my first daughter after Juniper.It is a great book for any ages.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful read, July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Juniper Game (Point) (Paperback)

I found this book a great read, and it still is one of my favourite books. Perfect for people 12+, and especially those who like reading about telepathy, witch trials, and the medievel times of England.I would recommend The Juniper Game to anyone. A book hard to put down, devestating to finish.