Mackler’s Influences
Resources: Tangled Group Reading Guide: http://www.carolynmackler.co m/PDF/Readers_Guide_Tangl ed.pdf The Earth, My Butt & Other Big Round Things Reading Guide: http://www.carolynmackler.co m/PDF/Readers_Guide_Earth. pdf
Carolyn Mackler was a selfproclaimed misfit in junior high; she never felt she completely fit in, and this has been a determining factor in her deciding to write young adult novels. Throughout junior high and high school, Mackler read many young adult novels in order to escape the belief that no one understood her. She read voraciously, but among her favorite authors were: Judy Blume, Lois Lowry, M.E. Kerr, and Norma Klein. Mackler writes on her website of the importance of novels for young adults and their influence on her:
CAROLYN MACKLER
WWW.CAROLYNMACKLER.COM
People often ask me now why I write novels for teenagers. Lots of reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that I honestly believe that, along with certain friendships, I was saved by the books I read during those years. They spoke to me in a way that nothing else did. They helped me feel less alone. They made me laugh. They made me feel like there was a world bigger than my high school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn _Mackler Compiled by Melissa McDonald
Other Mackler Titles
PARADISE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO SUCK. Paradise
consequences. And it will change Owen, who has never risked anything before and who will take the
Love and Other Four-Letter Words, 2000
wasn’t supposed to suck.
The Earth, My Butt, and Other
leap from his online life to a real one all because of a girl he met at Paradise….From confused to confident and back again, one thing’s certain: Four months after it all begins, none of them will ever be the same.
Big, Round Things, 2003 Vegan Virgin Valentine, 2004 Guyaholic, 2007
www.carolynmackler.com http://carolynmackler.com/Carol yn-Mackler-Blog.asp
Not the state of being, but a resort in the Caribbean. Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen are all there for different reasons, but at Paradise their lives become tangled together in ways none of them can predict. Paradise will change them all. It will change Jena, whose first brush with romance takes her that much closer to having a life, and not just reading about those infinitely cooler and more exciting. It will change Dakota, who needs the devastating truth about his past to make him realize that he doesn’t have to be a jerk just because people think he’s one. It will change Skye, a heartbreakingly beautiful actress, who must come to terms with the fact that for once she has to stop playing a role or face the
BEHIND THE BOOK…. I thought of the idea for Tangled several years ago. I pictured four teenagers, two boys and two girls, who meet on a trip and somehow all of their lives are drastically changed because of it. Early on, I knew the boys would be brothers, but I wasn’t sure how the girls would know each other. Maybe cousins? And then, a-ha, I realized their moms would be old friends and the girls keep getting forced together even though they don’t have a thing in common.