Dreams of Significant Girls
For Ages: 14 and up
Brought together each summer at a boarding school in Switzerland, three girls learn a lot more than just French and European culture. Shirin, an Iranian princess; Ingrid, a German-Canadian eccentric; and Vivien, a Cuban-Jewish New Yorker culinary phenom, are thrown into eachother's lives when they become roommates. This is a story of 3 paths slowly beginning to cross and merge as they spend the year apart, but the summers together. Through navigating the social-cultural shoals of the school, developing their adolescence, and learning the confusing and conflicting legacies of their families' past, Shirin, Ingrid, and Vivien form an unbreakable bond.
Like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, this story takes readers on a journey into the lives of very different girls and the bonds that keep them friends.
Like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, this story takes readers on a journey into the lives of very different girls and the bonds that keep them friends.
Choose a format:
Buy from us:
- Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers |
- 256 pages |
- ISBN 9781416979203 |
- July 2011 |
- Grades 9 and up
Buy from another retailer:
Praise
“[A] standout coming-of-age novel. The girls' personal awakenings feel organic, and the narrative handles mature themes well, including abortion, family connections to Nazis, and sexual awakenings. García's boarding school setting feels vibrantly alive [and] the power of sisterhood and female friendships shine. --Publishers Weekly, starred reviewAt a posh Swiss summer boarding school in 1971, three very different girls share their problems and dreams.Each voice is wholly individual, as are their disparate approaches to the impending freedoms and perils of adulthood. Loosely analogous to Ann Brashares’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Delacorte) and Zoey Dean’s A-List series (Little, Brown), this title is more mature and subtle than merely a rich-chick friendship story. [A] title that many mature young women will appreciate--School Library JournalThis beautifully written bildungsroman alternates between the three girls’ voices and gives the reader an appreciation for the various historical and cultural challenges each girl faces. The struggle for significance will appeal to thoughtful readers, and the luxuriant setting will make this easy to sell to fans of both Gemma Doyle and The Gossip Girls.--Booklist Dreams of Significant Girls takes you breathlessly and painfully back to the time when womanhood shimmered before you, always just out of reach, and you lunged for it, stupidly and bravely, with your first cigarette, your first kiss, your first swill of liquor, your first boy crush and your first girl crush.”
– New York Times Book Review
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“[A] standout coming-of-age novel. The girls' personal awakenings feel organic, and the narrative handles mature themes well, including abortion, family connections to Nazis, and sexual awakenings. García's boarding school setting feels vibrantly alive [and] the power of sisterhood and female friendships shine. --Publishers Weekly, starred reviewAt a posh Swiss summer boarding school in 1971, three very different girls share their problems and dreams.Each voice is wholly individual, as are their disparate approaches to the impending freedoms and perils of adulthood. Loosely analogous to Ann Brashares’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Delacorte) and Zoey Dean’s A-List series (Little, Brown), this title is more mature and subtle than merely a rich-chick friendship story. [A] title that many mature young women will appreciate--School Library JournalThis beautifully written bildungsroman alternates between the three girls’ voices and gives the reader an appreciation for the various historical and cultural challenges each girl faces. The struggle for significance will appeal to thoughtful readers, and the luxuriant setting will make this easy to sell to fans of both Gemma Doyle and The Gossip Girls.--Booklist Dreams of Significant Girls takes you breathlessly and painfully back to the time when womanhood shimmered before you, always just out of reach, and you lunged for it, stupidly and bravely, with your first cigarette, your first kiss, your first swill of liquor, your first boy crush and your first girl crush.”– New York Times Book Review
Read an Excerpt
DAY ONE
VIVIEN WAHL
Sometimes I think my parents sent me to Switzerland because they didn’t want me around. Things were going downhill for my father ever since we moved from Miami to New York City. My dad was kind of unusual for a Cuban exile. First, he was Jewish when most Cubans were Catholic, like my mother. Second, he was politically liberal—a registered Democrat, in fact—and believed that Cubans off the island should talk to the Cubans on the island. That made him Public Enemy Number One in Miami.
When the other Cuban exiles found out that Max Wahl had gone to Havana... see more
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