Paratore, Coleen Murtagh. The Wedding Planner's Daughter. New York: Simon & Shuster Books for Young Readers, 2002.

Audience: 9-12 year olds or grades 4-6

Out of the three genre books that I read this term, I enjoyed the Wedding Planner's Daughter the most.

Willafred Clancy Havisham has figured out the secret to wedded bliss, and it's hidden in the hem of every wedding gown worn by her mother's clients. Stella Havisham is a single mom who turned to wedding planning after the unexpected death of her husband the day after their wedding day. She became extremely successful after her daughter began sewing the pits from cherry cordials into the hem of each bride's wedding gown.

I enjoyed the quotes from literature that opened each chapter and especially liked Willa's reading list at the end of the book. I thought the book was well written and captured the desire of a 13-year old to have a father, as well as the depth of her imagination and romantic notions--even though her mother tries so very hard to keep her grounded in the real world.

There are all of the pre-requisite pre-teen turning into teen dilemmas: boys, a swim party where tissues used to pad Willa's chest end up floating in plain view in the water, a good friend and a not-so-good friend, first dance, and the question of when she'll have breasts. Underlying all of this is Willa's desire to have a father . . . but at the end of the book, Willa realizes that she just wanted her mother to really see her.

Will the book appeal to all audiences? Probably not. Because of the book's location on Cape Cod and the celebrity or economical status of Stella's clients, readers of a lower-income status or a more ethnic background might find it hard to relate to Willa and her predicaments. The universal themes of love, the desire to have a loving mother and father, and the romantic world vs. reality will ring true, though.

After completing Jerry Griswold's Audacious Kids, and then going back to The Wedding Planner's Daughter to look for the paradigms he describes, it was interesting to see that Willa was reading Tom Sawyer in the opening chapter of the book. (Paratore, p. 2) While the book isn't an exact fit into Griswold's model, the model is still useful in looking at the novel.

Willa Havisham isn't a true orphan, in that she lives with her natural mother throughout the book. Instead, Willa is an emotional orphan. She experiences a poverty of love from her mother, as well as a poverty of creativity and romanticism. Stella insists that Willa follow a set of rules that will keep her grounded in reality and prepare her for a top college and career. Leading the list is "Girls should have great expectations" and "Don't count on Prince Charming: he could fall off his horse." (Paratore, p. 7) Willa, herself, recognizes her semi-orphaned status:

Well, at least I'm not a complete orphan. At least I still have a Mother. And I do feel really sorry about what happened, but it's been almost thirteen years, and I know Father would understand if Mother got married again. He'd want her to be happy.

He'd want me to be happy. (Paratore, p. 17)

Willa's vanished happy times are the visions she has of her mother and father that she has pieced together from the poems and letters stashed in a red, heart-shaped trunk in her mother's closet. "The trunk is filled with love." (Paratore, p. 70) Willa's reverie is deep:

I can almost feel the warmth of my father's hand as I trace the words he wrote to Mother. . . . I hold the letter against my cheek. It's comforting, like a kiss. . . . I bring the letter to my ear and it rustles against my hair. I love you Willa, I love you. (Paratore, p. 71-72)

The prohibition against the marriage of Stella and Billy Havisham is an internal one on the part of Willa's mother, rather than being an external one from either set of in-laws. "[Stella] was going to be a big-shot businesswoman. She had no intention of being swept off her feet by some sweet-talking man." (Paratore, p. 11)

Throughout the book, Stella rues the fact that she had fallen hopelessly in love with a romantic man who suddenly vanished from her life. Because of the deep hurt that she experienced, Stella tries so very hard to protect not only herself from more emotional pain, but to protect her young daughter who is ready to live life to its fullest.

The Journey, or the transition into the second life, occurs when Stella and Willa move to Cape Cod, Stella's hometown.

Cape Cod, its beaches and the Atlantic Ocean represent the Great Outdoors. Instead of Willa actually living in the Big House, she wishes to live in the Big House next door that happens to be the home of her English teacher Sam Gracemore. "The Poet's big white house . . . was once the elegant Bramblebriar Inn." (Paratore, p. 21) Willa ends up spending a lot of time with Sam as she plots to bring him together with her mother.

Willa's symbolic adoption by a second family happens in two ways. First, the Belle family provides Willa with a sense of what it would be like to have a mother and father. Mrs. Belle fulfills many motherly duties for Willa, including helping her pick out her first formal dress for a dance, applying make-up, and allowing Willa to borrow a pearl necklace and earrings. These are activities that most mothers would share with their daughters. Instead, Stella is busy planning another wedding and is absent from Willa's life.

Second, Willa's second family is part of the larger environment and includes Nana, Mr. Tweed, and Sulamina Mum.

In some ways, the surrogate parents of a different social rank works a bit backwards. Stella is described as successful and glamorous. The Belle family seems like a typical middle-class family, and none of the other characters mentioned in the previous paragraph appear to be independently wealthy. Nana owns a candy shop, Mr. Tweed owns a bookstore, and Sulamina Mum is the local minister. They all offer Willa a different kind of richnes--a richness of love and friendship.

The same-sex antagonist first is Stella. At every angle she works against Willa's wishes. She insists on removing the romantic and fantastic elements from Willa's life, she insists on rules, and she refuses to be drawn into a relationship with anyone who might be potential father material for Willa.

The opposite-sex helpers include Sam Gracemore and Mr. Tweed while the outside helpers are Nana, Mrs. Belle, and Sulamina Mum.

Willa's triumph over the antagonist begins when she actually convinces Stella to host the Memorial Day picnic, to which Sam is invited. It continues when Stella, Willa, and Sam celebrate the Fourth of July together at the Bramblebriar Inn. The triumph is the softening of Stella's hard, exterior shell:

The poet puts his hand on Mother's shoulder. "I know, Stella, I know," he says. "It's something you never get over."

I see a look on Mother's face that I have never seen before. It looks like hope. (Paratore, p. 120)

The final triumph comes when Willa runs away to Bramble on her 13th birthday and Stella comes looking for her in the labyrinth.

And then, for the first time in my life, my mother looks at me, stares deep into my eyes . . . and really looks at me. She takes my face in her hands and looks in my eyes like I'm the one and only thing that makes her happiest in the world.

"I love you, Willa," she says.

My mother called me Willa. (Paratore, p. 183)

Willa greatest realization comes at this point:

Then, like lightning, it strikes me. All those years, all those birthdays, wishing for a father, thinking that's what I wanted most in the world. I was wrong. That wasn't it.

What I really wanted, what I needed most, was my mother. To really, truly see me. (Paratore, p. 184)

Willa emerges as the savior when Stella and Sam elope to Nantucket. The note left for Willa acknowledges this:


Dear Willa,
You were right. It's not about the big wedding day. It's the days that come after that count.
We can't wait to share them with you.
Love,
Mom and Sam (Paratore, p. 189)

The Third Life: Return is symbolized, in the greater sense, by Willa's return to Bramble on her 13th birthday. In a smaller sense, it is symbolized by Stella and Sam's return to Bramble where they begin renovating the Bramblebriar Inn.

The issues of identity are resolved as Stella becomes a softer, gentler person who is able to express love and emotion and Sam steps into the role of father. "Sam (he says to call him Dad only if and when I want to, but I'm kind of used to 'Sam' so that's good for now) . . . " (Paratore, p. 190) Willa now has the family that she has been wishing for.

The recognition ceremony is expressed in the "new statue by the labyrinth. "It's the present mother and Sam gave me after their honeymoon: a girl with a long ponytail, stretched out on her stomach on the grass, smiling as she reads a book." (Paratore, p. 190)

The accommodation of two lives is symbolized by the cherry seed that Willa plants in the front yard of the inn. It ties together all of the threads of the story: the cherry trees in bloom when Stella and Bill met, the cherry cordials Stella ate during courtship, the cherry cordials Willa ate as she dreamed of the perfect life, the love that Willa sewed into the hem of each wedding gown, and it now becomes a symbol of a future filled with the sweet perfume of love. Someday it will grow into a cherry tree with blossoms sweet as perfume." (Paratore, p. 190)