Future-friendly YA novel: I Was A Teenage Popsicle
Anne Corwin’s Existence is Wonderful blog signals the novel I Was A Teenage Popsicle by Bev Katz Rosenbaum: ”I am no stranger to the subject of suspended animation - however, it is odd and strangely compelling to see this subject pop up in something so far removed from sci-fi as the bubblegum world of novels written for an audience of eighth-grade girls. Could it be that the cryonics meme is, in fact, propagating through mainstream culture?”.
The book has received very good reviews and has been featured by a lot of magazines for girls and teens. I think popular “light” literature with a positive approach to human enhancement and, even more, future-friendly TV serials and movies, can really achieve a deep penetration of transhumanist memes in popular culture.
The author Bev Katz Rosenbaum has a very nice, clean and professional website on her ”Fiction for Tweens and Teens”. See also her page on Myspace, where she introduces herself as a a former fiction and magazine editor, now working as a full time YA writer.
I Was A Teenage Popsicle (Floe Ryan was frozen--well, ‘vitrified’--when she was sixteen. She’s just been thawed, and guess what, it’s ten years in the future and she’s still a teenager. And her parents are still, shall we say, chilling out. Floe’s little sister is now her older sister (and guardian!), and payback’s a beyotch. On top of that, Floe has to get used to a new school, new technology, and a zillion other new things that happened while she was napping in the freezer. Luckily, she has Taz Taber--the hottie sk8er boy who used to make her melt before she was frozen--to reintegrate with. But now they’re trying to close the Venice Beach Cryonics Center-with Floe’s parents still in it! Now that’s cold. It’s up to Floe to save the clinic and her parents--so she can finally have a chance at a somewhat normal life…) has received very good reviews (check the Amazon page and the Press section of the author’s website) and was chosen as a Girl’s Life Magazine ‘Big Book Giveaway’ in September ‘06.
The sequel Beyond Cool (Floe Ryan was frozen (well, vitrified) for ten years because of a rare disease. Now she’s been thawed back to her normal self, but absolutely everything else has changed. Just when she starts warming up to this new scene, everything falls apart…. Her boyfriend is giving her the cold shoulder, and there are all these cliques she can’t fit into--high school can be a cold place. Worse yet, Dr. Dixon at the Cryonics Center tells her that those who were frozen are more susceptible to illnesses and the one doctor who can cure this immune system weakness has gone AWOL. Now it’s up to Floe and her brainy friend Sophie to find him. But they’re not the only ones looking for him--and this time, Floe could be iced for good…) will be published in 2007.
Posted by G.P. on 12/29 at 07:41 AM