Tulip Touch [Paperback]

Anne Fine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 1997

Nobody wants Tulip in their gang. She skives off school, cheeks the teachers and makes herself unpopular with her classmates by telling awful lies. None of this matters to Natalie who finds Tulip exciting. At first she doesn't care that other people are upset and unnerved by Tulip's bizarre games, but as the games become increasingly sinister and dangerous, Natalie realises that Tulip is going too far, much too far, racing, in fact, to the novel's shocking ending.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"This exceptionally insightful tale offers a fascinating study of a much-victimized child striking out at the world," said PW in a starred review. Ages 12-up. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9. Natalie realizes she must cut herself off from Tulip, whose lies, cruelty, and need to control threaten to destroy them both. A haunting novel about the sometimes malevolent nature of friendship.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (February 27, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140378081
• ISBN-13: 978-0140378085
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,320,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, July 26, 2001

By 

John (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tulip Touch (Hardcover)

To be honest, I didn't expect much from the book, and I still don't know why I ever read it. I had read Flour Babies by Anne Fine, and I didn't like it. I thought it was too didactic, and I thought the humor was far less than funny. The Tulip Touch didn't share any of the former's problems. It is simply an amazing book that really made me think about some of the friendships I had in high school (I just graduated).

The plot follows Natalie who is the best friend of Tulip. Tulip comes from a totally unloving and abusive family and is a trouble-maker. Gradually, Tulip's behavior begins to influence Natalie. Natalie watches herself being dragged lower and lower by Tulip. Finally, she feels she must break away. But, can she? Has Tulip been that bad of a friend. Also, should or could she have been helping Tulip?

The Tulip Touch is really a fascinating book. It is entertaining, but it also makes you think. It raises quite a few ethical concerns for our society, and it examines a friendship (though very off-beat one) thouroughly. The Tulip Touch really should be required reading because their are many young adults out their with friends like Tulip and there are also a lot of people who will hopefully not become parents like Tulip's.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sensitive exploration of "how children go bad", November 25, 2005

By 

A voracious reader (Mars) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tulip Touch (Hardcover)

This quiet novel is, I believe, one of Anne Fine's best. It's a balanced and sensitive exploration of friendship and families: what it means to destroy and what it is to be reborn.
Natalie, the protagonist of this novel, is a quiet and introverted child - a member of a busy hotel-manager's family, somewhat neglected. At the age of eight she meets Tulip, a bright, original outsider. From the first, Tulip enchants Natalie with her ideas for games and her spark of mischief. Natalie's parents encourage the friendship, knowing something about Tulip's dysfunctional family and miserable home life. Before long, Tulip has closed Natalie off from her schoolmates and family - Natalie, though, is happy in this unusual friendship. Yet as time passes, Tulip's streaks of malice and cruelty begin to show as her home life deteriorates.
Tulip and Natalie are the main characters in this drama: in the background we see parents, classmates, police officers and other figures, but these are generally sketches. That is my main quibble with this book: none of the characters except our central duo seem truly developed, or are sufficient to hold readers' interest. Perhaps this is intentional, but it annoyed me personally. In an interesting introduction to my edition, Anne Fine writes that Tulip and Natalie seemed to "spring to life" almost as soon as she began to write the novel. She notes that they show the qualities of a good author. Tulip is a compulsive and brilliant liar (and, Fine says, "what is a novel but a tissue of lies telling the truth?"). Also, Natalie "has the strength to look on something painful and not turn away". One of a writer's greatest and most needed qualities.
The Tulip Touch is an unusual tale, raising many moral questions - does true evil exist? Are we born with our personalities or are they shaped by our upbringing? What is evil? Why, as Natalie demands at the end of the novel, does a person's state have to become desperate before he or she is given help? Cleverly, Anne Fine (an educated, opinionated atheist who disbelieves in the concept of evil) makes clear her views while leaving the reader to decide his or her own answers to these difficult questions.
Four stars for the plot and characters, and an additional star for the fantastic descriptions found throughout the book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Priceless pyromaniac Peril, June 30, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Tulip Touch (Laurel-Leaf Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

I became deeply entranced in this book. The twisted storyline and intriguing characters kept me hooked throughout the book. I have read a lot of Anne Fine's books and this is definitely one of her best. You can definitely relate to the characters and how they think, when she describes how Natalie feels during the fire in the shed you can see images and imagine you are actually there. It's really very powerful. I've only read it once, but I would read it many more times.