Customer Reviews

Tulip Touch

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I gave this book four stars becaue it held my attention. The characters seemed very real because their problems are seen in school. Tulip may not seem real to you but she does to me. The Tulip Touch, by Anne Fine, really makes you realize what a bad influence can do. I think Anne Fine told the story in just the right way to make it seem real.

This book was really special. It made me think about the 'Tulips' of the world. Please read it, it is undescribable in the context

It had a lot of meaning, and it gave me a feel of what it was like to be like tulip. I give it 5 stars, for the well thought out plan of the characters.

This is a well-written book that shows, with great sensitivity, how fragile children can be and how important it is for others to reach out to those in trouble. The Tulip Touch should be read by young adults, 7th. grade and up, as well as by those who work with them. Not an easy book to read, on an emotional level, but well worth the effort. Wonderfully illustrates the "if only I'd....." syndrome so many of us suffer from that leads to lifelong regrets.

The Tulip Touch is an emotional book that teaches about friendship and what happens to kids who are bullied.This book teaches kids to speak for themselves and to not follow other who are doing bad things and encourages kids to make decisions independently. The book is well written. Anne Fine describes the scenes clearly and makes you feel like you are in the book with the character. the ending of the novel helps the reader unserstand why the horrible things that happened through this book occurred. We would recommend this book to kids and adults because adults can see what happens in a real kid's life and kids will learn to speak for themselves and to learn the dangers of bullying.

The Tulip Touch was a great book! In the first part a family of four move in to a hotel Natalies family meet a odd girl called Tulip shes in there field she has a little kitten. The next part Natilie finds out how diffrent Tulips family is to hers like the way they treat animals and humans! the third some thing very tragic happens to Tulip! To find out what happens to tulip by reading this book! I would racomend this book to all ages above 9,this is a great book.

The Tulip Touch was a great book! In the first part a family of four move in to a hotel Natalies family meet a odd girl called Tulip shes in there field she has a little kitten. The next part Natilie finds out how diffrent Tulips family is to hers like the way they treat animals and humans! the third some thing very tragic happens to Tulip! To find out what happens to tulip by reading this book! I would racomend this book to all ages above 9,this is a great book.