Sophie Pitt-turnbull Discovers America

by Sheldon, Dyan

• ISBN13: 9780763632953
• ISBN10: 0763632953
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-10
• Publisher: Candlewick

Summary

"Sheldon has lots of fun with mutual stereotypes and prejudices, not only about nationality but also about race and class. . . . Hilarious." BOOKLIST The summer her mother announces that they won't be taking their usual holiday in France, sixteen-year-old Sophie Pitt-Turnbull is aghast so much so that when Mummy's old art-school chum in New York suggests they trade daughters for the summer, Sophie feels her prayers have been answered. Unfortunately, there are a few details Mummy neglects to tell her. . . . Get ready for a comical case of culture clash as an uptight British teen finds herself deep in the heart of working-class Brooklyn and finally dares to have an adventure worth writing home about.

Author Biography

Dyan Sheldon is the author of many books for teenagers, including the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN (which was made into a major motion picture), MY PERFECT LIFE, and PLANET JANET. American by birth — and a former resident of Brooklyn, New York, where her daughter now lives — Dyan Sheldon resides in London.

Excerpts

I've always known exactly who I am. I am Sophie Pitt-Turnbull. I live with Mummy, Daddy, and my older brother, Xar, in a terraced house in Putney, London, England. Daddy writes books (novels and biographies) and Mummy is a housewife and painter (portraits of domestic animals). Although Daddy's family didn't begin to prosper until the Industrial Revolution, Mummy can trace her ancestors back to Henry II, so I was raised with a strong sense of tradition and history. "Never forget that you're British," Nana Bea likes to say, and I never have. I've always been happy with who I am. Not in a stuck-up, I'm-the-best-thing-that's-happened-since-the-invention-of-the-lightbulb sort of way, of course. More in a God’s-done-a-lot-worse-than-Sophie-Pitt-Turnbull sort of way. Even after Jocelyn Scolfield said all that stuff about me being a bit on the dull and passive side, I was still satisfied with myself. I reckoned that I'd improve with age (like wine or cheese), but I never actually expected to change. Not change so much that I could divide my life into two parts: the part with the old me and the part with the new me. But I never expected to discover America. . . .

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SOPHIE PITT TURNBULL by Dyan Sheldon. Copyright (c) 200f by Dyan Sheldon. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.

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Excerpted from Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America by Dyan Sheldon
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