Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 11 to 14
- Grade: 6 to 9
Description
Charla is the new girl at school, nervous about her shabby clothes and mourning her parents' break-up. Paige, Charla's new friend, is only concerned with fashion, gossip, and her good-looking boyfriend, but the emptiness of her life soon comes to light. Josh, a shy and timid loner, neglected by his career-minded parents, resorts to magic in order to make himself disappear when being victimized by the school bully, Adam, who passes on the rough treatment he receives at home. With adult characters represented only by puppets and inanimate objects—a busy career mom is a briefcase containing video games and a plush pillow heart, while a single working mom is a marionette caught up in her strings—the unique world of the four young people in Seesaw reaches us through their own eyes.
About the author
Dennis Foon was co-founder of Vancouverâ??s acclaimed Green Thumb Theatre and served as artistic director for twelve years. As a playwright, his body of plays continues to be produced internationally in numerous languages and he has received the British Theatre AWard, two Chalmers Canadian Play Awards, the Jesse Richardson Career Achievement Award, and the International Arts for Young Audiences Award. In 2007 he was made a lifetime member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada for his â??outstanding contribution to Canadian Playwriting and Theatre.â? His play Kindness received the 2009 AATE Distinguished Play Award. His newest play, Scar Tissue, premiered at the Arts Club Theatre.
Heâ??s won a Gemini, two WGC Awards, three Leos, and a Robert W. Wagner Award for his screenplays, which include Little Criminals, White Lies, Torso, and Terry. He is also the co-writer of Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity and A Shine of Rainbows, which won a Leo and received a Genie Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. He wrote the screenplay for the feature Life Above All, Prix FranÒ«ois Chalais winner at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, 2011 Academy Award Shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film, and a Leo winner for Best Screenplay. His novel Skud (Groundwood Books, 2003) received a BC Book Prize, and his sci-fi/fantasy trilogy, The Longlight Legacy, has been published in five languages.