Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature - Scarecrow Press

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8 Chapter One senior in the small farming community of Duffton. The title comes from a hostile use of Evie’s name when at church the Lord’s Prayer is being recited and a boy says “in this loud voice, ‘Deliver us from Evie,’” after which he nudges Evie and laughs as if he has made a good joke (91). The boy is named Cord Whittle, an appropriate name for a boy who wants to tie Evie down to the farm and perhaps at the same time whittle Patsy Duff down to size. Patsy is Evie’s best friend as well as the daughter of the richest family in Duffton. A gold sign in front of their farm reads “Duffarm,” while everyone knows that the Duffs paid for the Duffton Municipal Swimming Pool as well as the Duffton Community Center and the Veterans Memorial Statue. Playful names that lighten the tension of the story include that of Angel Kidder, who is a religious but fickle girl whom Parr has a crush on. The town sheriff has the last name of Starr, while his freckle-faced son is called Spots. When Evie’s brother brings a girlfriend named Bella Hanna home from college, she turns out to be a vegetarian who turns up her nose at most of the things about their farm. Evie and Parr get even by referring to her as Anna Banana. The Humor of Commercial Names Teenagers are so often the targets of commercial advertising whether in their magazines, on television, or through “cookies” and “pop-up ads” on computer screens, that in their own defense they develop a veneer of cynicism about commercial messages. This means that they are especially appreciative of authors who make fun of advertisers’ techniques. A common trick is to create product names that drop hints instead of making the kind of forthright claims that could be argued against. Kerr points this out when Wally first meets Sabra St. Amour on the beach in an early scene from I’ll Love You When You’re More Like Me. She asks him for a cigarette, and he tells her that she would have to be a little crazy to let the tobacco companies manipulate her with such names as Merit, which is supposed to mean something like excellence, or value, or a reward. He can’t see anything excellent, valuable, or rewarding about having cancer. Sabra tells him she came to the beach for a swim and some sun, not for a lecture, but he goes on to ask her about the appropriateness of Vantage (clipped from advantage) as a brand name and whether True, More, and Now mean that you will
Names for Fun 9 get more out of life by living for the moment because you won’t live long if you are being True to your filthy habit. Sabra doesn’t quit smoking, but she does start to get interested in Wally as a thinker. In another acknowledgment of the power of commercial names, in What I Really Think of You, Opal’s overweight mother is constantly eating Good & Plenty licorice candy while insisting that she doesn’t “care one way or the other”; she just likes the name (170). In Fell when John is working at the Plain and Fancy gourmet shop, one morning he forgets to put the raisins in their famous White Raisin Dream Cakes. Quick thinker that he is, he capitalizes on his forgetfulness by frosting and renaming them “Remembering Helen” in honor of his girlfriend, Keats, whose real name is Helen J. Keating. “What the hell does that mean?” barks the owner. Fell patiently explains that people like kinky names and the cakes are selling well. Then he suggests that they rename the Black Walnut Cake “Smiles We Left Behind Us.” His unimpressed boss responds with “We’re not in showbiz here” (55–56). Another mysterious name in the Fell books is the secret Sevens Club at the elite Gardner school. The name hints at the students’ good luck in being tapped for membership and the accompanying special privileges. Only near the end of the third book do readers learn that membership is awarded to those students who, at the freshman tree-planting ceremony, happen to choose a seven-letter name for their tree. As examples, Kerr lists Madonna, Cormier, and Up Yours. John had named his tree Good-bye partly because he had criticized his girlfriend’s architect father for choosing the pretentious name of Adieu for the last house he planned to build. Another reason for his choice is that in coming to Gardner disguised as Thompson Pingree, he is saying goodbye to his old name, his old life, and his old friends. In Linger, the Dunlinger family is accustomed to “owning” the restaurant business in their town. When a new little Mexican restaurant that brings out pitchers of sangria and lets people sit in a pretty little garden with twinkling lights threatens to compete, Bobby Dunlinger starts the rumor that the owners catch cats in the fields behind the canal and serve them up as part of their well-spiced Mexican food. The restaurant’s name is Mañana, but to make sure everyone gets the point, Bobby uses graffiti to change the name to Mañana Meow.
Page 1: Names and Naming in Young Adult Lit
Page 4 and 5: viii Contents Chapter 6 Names to R
Page 6 and 7: x Introduction Leslie Dunkling, in
Page 8 and 9: xii Introduction Sweetness (Walter
Page 10 and 11: xiv Introduction and because they
Page 12 and 13: xvi Introduction and to the Englis
Page 14 and 15: 2 Chapter One Names Expressing Hos
Page 16 and 17: 4 Chapter One Boyle, and Gloria Gi
Page 18 and 19: 6 Chapter One smile inwardly when
Page 22 and 23: 10 Chapter One Gary Paulsen’s Ho
Page 24 and 25: 12 Chapter One Louis Sachar’s Ho
Page 26 and 27: 14 Chapter One cabin. She opens he
Page 28 and 29: 16 Chapter One so the story ends h
Page 30 and 31: 18 Chapter One These shoes, these
Page 32 and 33: 20 Chapter One Henriette tires of
Page 34: 22 Chapter One The long and the sh

Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature - Scarecrow Press

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