Customer Reviews

Seventeen Against the Dealer

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In all honesty, this book could be about the Tillermans starting a circus and I would still have enjoyed it. But it isn't, and Dicey's struggle to build boats and finish building herself and her relationships is exactly the way the series is supposed to end. This book lacks the sheer poetic beauty of A Solitary Blue or Homecoming, but anyone who remotely enjoyed any of the other books would find a visit to Seventeen... worthwhile. Yes, it gets bogged down in the details of boatbuilding, but it effectively demonstrates how most of us spend our adult lives bogged down in the details, always teetering on the edge of success or ruin. And its nice to see Dicey and Jeff still together, but maybe thats just me.

Cynthia Voight never ceases to amaze, in this closing book to the ongoing Tillerman saga. Dicey gets a hold of her life in this installment, but shows how growing older makes life less easy to control. I recommend this to anyone who has read the other Tillerman books and wants to finish it. I only wish it were longer, and gave the ending more room. Truly amazing in all aspects. It is just a good book.

I have loved all the book in the Tillerman cycle for years. No one that I know reads them seriously, so I've never been able to find out: is Cisco really Francis Verricker, Dicey's father? I would reccommend this book to anyone, even someone that has not read the series. It is a beautiful story about learning that self reliance is not always the best path.

By now, the wonderfully three-dimensional characters such as Dicey and Jeff are beginning to wilt. I recommend this book to fans of Dicey because it is good to find out what happens, but this isn't a book worth reading more than two or three times. (the earlier ones in the series NEVER get old) It's too depressing, and the happy ending doesn't really make up for the depressing parts.

I've always been disappointed that Jeff Greene, who is possibly my favorite character in all of literary fiction, is never fleshed out beyond A Solitary Blue. The later Dicey books make him out to be some sort of young god. Kind of disappointing.

Seventeen Against the Dealer was much better than I expected. I read this book to do a report on, and it is very easy to understand, very easy reading. I was able to relate to each of the characters, especially Dicey and Maybeth. This book had something for almost everyone. A little suspence, a little adventure, and a little romance. If you are like me, I can picture a grandmother refusing to be taken to a doctor, eventhough she is near death. If you have read any of Voigt's books, read this one. It does get better after the 2nd chapter!

"Seventeen Agasinst the Dealer" is the last book in the Tillerman Family novels. Dicey is faced with many problems and harships, but when they occur, Dicey's family and friends are always there to guide her. Cynthia Voigt has written this novel very descriptively, so that readers can understand the character's life more easily. At first, in "Homecoming", the reader didn't know that much information about the characters. In this book, he/she can now know more about the them. Because of that, the reader can put him/herself into the character's place and understand what they are feeling. Cynthia Voigt inspired me to go out into the world and make my own choices. She also has given me the idea to be all that I can be and do my best.

I'm pretty sure my mom handed me a copy of Dicey's Song (The Tillerman Series #2) during one of our summer reading list deals. Surely you're familiar with the concept. I read so many of the books on the list and she, in turn, gave me some sort of reward. You see this was back in the pre-Chronicles of Narnia phase in my life. The early days when I would rather be rolling down hills or jumping on beds than reading during the summer. Frankly, it's hard for me to look back now and remember such a time even existed. I'm pretty sure it was a list from the local library and that most of the books on it were award winners of some sort. As Dicey's Song (The Tillerman Series #2)g was the Newbery winner for 1983, it was definitely on the list. Looking back I'm actually glad I didn't pick it up that summer. Instead I held out long enough to have fallen in love with reading a year or two later as well as discover that it was actually the second book in a series of seven. The Tillerman Cycle follows the four Tillerman kids on their journey in search of home. The entire series is spectacular and covers quite a span of years, at times following close family friends and, in one instance, a relative before returning to the original four in the concluding volume--SEVENTEEN AGAINST THE DEALER. This final book hasn't gotten the attention it deserves, IMO. I'm still unable to pick my favorite of the series. Dicey's Song (The Tillerman Series #2) is an absolute classic and A Solitary Blue (The Tillerman Series #3) is breathtaking (and won the Newbery Honor a year later). But SEVENTEEN AGAINST THE DEALER grips my heart every time I re-read it and is an all too rare example of an author managing to end a long-ish series flawlessly.

Dicey is now 21 years old. Having raised her three siblings in almost every sense of the word, she is now ready for that independence she's been longing for for so long. James is dealing with colleges and scholarships. Maybeth is taking care of Gram and keeping the house together. Sammy is playing enough tennis for four teenage boys. And Jeff is away at school. The perfect time for Dicey to stretch her wings and open that boat business she's always wanted to. After sinking every penny she ever earned into setting up shop and accumulating the necessary tools, Dicey spends all day every day working to pay her rent, with precious few moments leftover to craft that perfect boat she has in her head. In fact, Dicey spends the majority of her time in her own head now. She's always been introverted but she takes it to a new level here, unable to really bring anything else into focus. In the meantime, several important things go by the wayside. Her siblings need her but fear to intrude. Jeff tries to maintain their relationship, give her space at the same time, and not lose himself in the force of Dicey's indomitable will. After her shop is broken into, Dicey reluctantly admits she needs help and takes in a drifter by the name of Cisco Kidd who may be just what he says he is. Or he may turn out to be much, much more than that.

Voigt's writing wraps itself around me just the way music wraps around Dicey. I never want to leave. By book seven, I love this family and these characters so much they feel as though they're mine. There's just something about the Tillermans that's impossible not to admire. And Dicey herself has long been one of my most beloved characters in all of literature. When I was 12 I wanted to be her so much it hurt. Truth be told, I still want to be her. She tackles her problems with nothing but her own two hands and an inability to fail. She is the definition of tenacity. To a fault sometimes. But she knows what's important and she takes care of her own. That's why it's so beautiful to find this last story was hers alone. And to find that after everything she's been through, she's so far from perfect. She still has things to learn about life and loved ones and not taking any of it for granted. This story is so real in its depiction of the painful entrance to adulthood, the monotonous grind of daily labor, and the process of learning how to love someone the way they need to (and ought to) be loved. It takes my breath away every time. SEVENTEEN AGAINST THE DEALER stands on its own, but don't cheat yourself and start with the last. Read all seven books for the full experience. If you're short on time you could probably get by with just the three (Dicey's Song (The Tillerman Series #2), A Solitary Blue (The Tillerman Series #3), and this one). But only if you're short...

Cynthia Voigt created a bestselling series with the Tillerman family that began with "Homecoming" and ended with this book "Seventeen against The Dealer." Voigt's talented use of action and realistic dialogue to move the story along keeps readers turning the pages and longing for more. I became a Dicey fan early on for her courage and her spunk. Dicey, the whole Tillerman clan make excellent role models for today's young.
I recommend this book to all the young and young at heart.

Beverly J Scott Author of Righteous Revenge

Somehow, "Seventeen" just doesn't seem to measure up to the rest of the books in the series. Oh, sure, it's great to find out what happens to Dicey and the gang as they grow up - however, somehow this part of the Tillerman saga simply fails to compel as its predecessors did.

I think part of the reason for this may be the large time jump from the last book - Voigt would fill us in on what had happened since "Sons from Afar" and "Dicey's Song", but there was still this nagging feeling that there was this gaping...gap...between the time periods of the books, and that gap is never filled in a satisfactory manner. I can't help but feel that things that Voigt probably would have expanded upon and made an interesting read out of, she simply skimmed through in "Seventeen" - such as Mina and Dexter's relationship, Maybeth and Phil (or whatever the name of Jeff's friend was), et cetera.

Of course, we have Dicey. But somehow, Dicey isn't nearly as endearing a heroine as she used to be - she's simply focused on keeping together her new boat-building business and neglects everything else in her life. True, much of the book's focus IS on this particular problem, but too much of the writing is focused on the shop itself and Dicey's business dealings. At least, that's how I remember it, which is a bad thing because it shows that if other things DID go on on a regular basis, they simply weren't interesting enough to recall. The complex family and friend interactions and relationships that enriched the previous books simply aren't in this one as much, with Dicey spending much of her time with the unfascinating and shady character of - Cisco, I believe his name was, though I might be wrong. I don't remember. See what I mean?

Her relationship with Jeff, as depicted in the book, was also quite a letdown. Jeff was barely even IN the book at all, so it was quite difficult to get that sense of powerful love between them, though of course it was there to an extent (mostly around the very beginning and ends of the book...which, come to think of it, are the only places Jeff really shows up in anyway). Wilhemina Smiths' love for Tamer Shipp in "Come a Stranger" was much more convincing and proved that Voigt is indeed capable of portraying powerful and moving feelings of love in her writing.

All in all, I agree with a couple of the other reviewers in that this book could have been made so much more of, bringing this otherwise wonderful series to a satisfying conclusion. It succeeds to some extent in the end, but it's really just too little, too late to make "Seventeen Against the Dealer" what it could have been to long-time fans of the Tillermans.

That isn't to say that the book is bad at all, though - it just might be a bit of a disappointment to longtime readers of the series. The depth and complexity of the protagonist's conflicts are there as strongly as ever, and the writing itself is very solid. It's just not as compelling as Voigt's other books. Of course, though, that shouldm't stop anyone from reading this book to find out what happens to the Tillermans (though I must warn you that several characters' futures remain unresolved, such as Maybeth and, more disappoiningly and keenly, Mina Smiths).

The four Tillerman children are almost all grown up. They almost desert their grandmother, leaving her to get sick. Priorities change, but they are eventually for the better. These changes bring the family close together once again. This book is very well written. It shows the power Cynthia Voight has to create life like situations and solve them with life like resolutions. This book is qiute life like, as if Cynthia Voight herself were in a situation similar to this. They were always living on the edge. The whole family was always prepared for any advantage or disadvantage coming their way at any point in time. This book is very good and challenges the mind at all times. The situations that the Tillermans are in are always on the edge of seperating the whole book from reality and fiction.