A teenage runaway encounters both love and loneliness when she decides to settle in a small Arkansas town.
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More About the Author
Crescent Dragonwagon, the author of the James Beard Award-winning Passionate Vegetarian, The Cornbread Gospels, Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread Cookbook, many children's books, and two novels, has just completed Bean by Bean.
Dragonwagon is a Southern Yankee: though born in New York, for 18 years she was innkeeper/chef/co-owner of Dairy Hollow House, an acclaimed country inn in the Ozark Mountain community of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where she resided for 36 years. But, since 2002, she has lived in Westminster West, Vermont.
Dragonwagon has the distinction of having prepared beans and cornbread for a president (Bill Clinton), titled royalty (Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia), a world-renowned feminist (Betty Friedan) and Marilyn Monroe's first biographer (Maurice Zolotow). She teaches two writing workshops, Deep Feast: Writing the World through Food, and Fearless Writing, around the world (the latter, she teaches once a year, in the Whole Enchilada version, from her own home hilltop in the Green Mountains). She has appeared on Good Morning America, Today, TVFN, & CNN.
She lives, writes, and cooks in the 1795 farmhouse which once belonged to her aunt, at which she spent summers when a child. She shares the place with her partner, filmmaker David Koff, and, often, numerous well-fed friends. An ardent gardener, she's currently growing 4 different varieties of bush beans, and 5 of pole beans. .. under the supervision of her large and amiable tabby cat, Cattywhompus (who can usually be found rolling in the catmint).
Dragonwagon is a Southern Yankee: though born in New York, for 18 years she was innkeeper/chef/co-owner of Dairy Hollow House, an acclaimed country inn in the Ozark Mountain community of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, where she resided for 36 years. But, since 2002, she has lived in Westminster West, Vermont.
Dragonwagon has the distinction of having prepared beans and cornbread for a president (Bill Clinton), titled royalty (Princess Elizabeth of Yugoslavia), a world-renowned feminist (Betty Friedan) and Marilyn Monroe's first biographer (Maurice Zolotow). She teaches two writing workshops, Deep Feast: Writing the World through Food, and Fearless Writing, around the world (the latter, she teaches once a year, in the Whole Enchilada version, from her own home hilltop in the Green Mountains). She has appeared on Good Morning America, Today, TVFN, & CNN.
She lives, writes, and cooks in the 1795 farmhouse which once belonged to her aunt, at which she spent summers when a child. She shares the place with her partner, filmmaker David Koff, and, often, numerous well-fed friends. An ardent gardener, she's currently growing 4 different varieties of bush beans, and 5 of pole beans. .. under the supervision of her large and amiable tabby cat, Cattywhompus (who can usually be found rolling in the catmint).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Blisteringly honest story of runaway doesn't go far enough,
By A Customer
This review is from: To Take a Dare (Hardcover)
Part of the blisteringly honest modern YA genre born of Judy Blume, which exploded in the 70s and 80s, "To Take A Dare" explores the unbearable pressures which lead up to Chris/Chrysta's running away from home, finding herself on the road, and the reasons why she attempts to adopt a young runaway, Dare, in an attempt to give him a true family. Fans of Dragonwagon's witty, funny, sharp and tender writing style won't be disappointed; Chrysta's word-portraits of the stifling suburbia she grows up in, her sadly frustrated family, her life on the road and her discovery of a true home in Arskansas, are all memorable. But Dragonwagon's view of life on the road, gritty as it is, with Chrysta's trading sexual favors for a lift or place to stay, is, in the end, terribly naive. This isn't the author's fault; any book about sexual trading pre-AIDS inevitably seems like apostcard written from the deck of the Titanic. But even minus the sex, life on the road for Chrysta seems a little too idyllic; something read and written about, rather than experienced. Like the obvious symbolism of "take a Dare," it is more read-about than real. But the portrayal of a young woman running to find and then defend her own standards and her own life is not easily dismissed. Dragonwagon's literary style and love of language lift this book above the typical teen-problem novel.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Chrysta Peretti runs away, and writes abt. her travels.,
This review is from: To Take a Dare (Mass Market Paperback)
When Chrysta Peretti runs away from home to start a new life for herself, away from her huge mother, and obnoxious father, she has no idea how rough life can be on her own. In this book, Chrysta is writing all her accounts down of her journeys, and struggles. When Chrysta moves to Excelsior Springs, Arkansas, she finally realizes what it's like to be loved and cared for, and at last she is able to come to terms with her childhood.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
To Take A Dare,
By meg (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: To Take a Dare (Hardcover)
She's a run-away. Driven by rage and a passion to have a normal life, nothing can stop her. Who is this? Her name is Chrysta, a young 14 year old that is just trying to find a normal life or even a normal family.This teen finds many friends along the way. Leaving some so thy can go their ways (but always communicating). As she travels about the country, she learns lessons, and the real meanings of things that weren't so important to her before. She grew up hard in the beginning, but she learns about herself along the way. This realistic fiction novel is sure to enter the lives of teenage girls. This book was strait with the information. There were hardly any if, an's, or but's. You would think with all the description it had, it might have been real. I would defiantly recommend this book to teenage girls! It is so realistic, and makes you think, "Wow, this book could of really happened!" It's not one of those boring books that make you think, "When will this part ever end?" Chrysta is constantly moving around to new places, more new friends, and even more life-long lessons. Page after page you knew you had to keep going. There was no stop. Many teens could of related to Chrysta during one of her situations in the book. So many events that happened, you would have to relate to one of them. So do you happen to be a teenage girl with a thirst of realistic fiction adventures through the up's and downs? Pick up, To Take A Dare. You couldn't regret it. You're questions are sure to be, "Does she find her NORMAL life?" Maybe, maybe not. She may find other things just as important along the way.
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