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"We Dance to the Music of Our Own Time": Reflected Images of Granddaughters and Grandmothers Being a woman means being part of a cycle of life, but how does one view other phases of that cycle? A grandmother looks at a granddaughter and sees a reflection of her past. A young girl looks at her grandmother and sees a reflection of her future. Patricia Spacks explains how in adolescence one experiments with many roles, both imaginary and real, "re-creates oneself," and later as an adult "re-invents those past selves, converting the shifting shapes of adolescence into images that make retrospective sense" (The Adolescent Idea 4). I propose an intimate look at six fictional relationships which are still joined genetically , although separated by at least fifty years. What values do the grandmothers find important enough to pass on to their granddaughters? What do the granddaughters learn from the grandmothers? What do they learn from each other about being human and about being female? Finally, what do these books say to young people about moving from childhood to adolescence to adulthood? The books were selected for their literary merit, as well as their characterization. Three of the books have won the Newbery Award, and one of the other authors has written a Newbery Honor Book. In Little Miss Muffett Fights Back, a listing of nonsexist books for young people, the editors require high literary quality in the portrayal of strong female characters with positive personality traits whose relationships reach beyond the limitations of romance.1 Such novels have merit for boys and girls, for the qualities which define a "strong human being" are desirable for both men and women (Minard x). I wish to challenge Patricia Spacks' s complaint in The Female Imagination that there are virtually no novels "that celebrate female adolescence" (200). In the works in this study the changing images from girlhood to adolescence present a rich collage to contribute to a better understanding of this important stage of development. The female characters are varied. The gentle grandmother in Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry shares her world of memories with her granddaughter. In Rose Blue's Grandma Didn't Wave Back, the role of caretaker switches from grandmother to granddaughter as the older woman's mental condition deteriorates. In Katherine Paterson 's Jacob Have I Loved, a rigid, unsympathetic, and finally senile woman complicates the life of her granddaughter. Grandmothers must sometimes take over where parents fail as in Child of the Owl by Laurence M. Yep and Dicey' s Song by Cynthia Voigt. Finally, a strong grandmother is a part of a proud family facing racial prejudice in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor. All the heroines learn about a world that includes both adolescence and aging. 120 In Dicey 's Song, thirteen-year-old Dicey realizes that what she and her brothers and sisters need after their mother's mental breakdown is the security and continuity of a home that only her grandmother can provide. Gram has experienced the pain of separation from her own children and tries to reach out to her grandchildren. She emphasizes the importance of family unity when she and Dicey bring the ashes of her daughter back to rest close to the family (206). Gram represents a loving, nurturing, self-reliant person, but she is hardly a traditional older woman. She goes barefooted, wins all the marbles from the second-grade boys and girls, and has to prove to some people that she is not crazy. Dicey has been the mother to the younger children all summer and is accustomed to thinking as an adult carrying that responsibility . At first, she has mixed feelings about relinquishing that role to Gram. She still worries about the children, gets a job so that they can have allowances, and goes with Gram to Boston to see her dying mother. Despite her adult thinking, she tries to ignore the changes in her body and resents Gram's insistence on buying her dresses and a bra. Gram's matter-offact attitude helps her accept herself as she is and understand that next year she might be ready to go to a...

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