Dizzy door Cathy Cassidy

Facts

Title : Dizzy
Writer : Cathy Cassidy
Publisher : Puffin
Level : I think it’s quit readable
Pages : 217

The title of my book is “Dizzy”. Dizzy is a twelve years old girl, the main character of the book. So that’s why the book is calles “Dizzy”. Puffin published the book in June 2004. I think “Dizzy” is a very nice book, for al kinds of ages. Girls will more like it than boys, I think, because it’s all about a girls-world.

The story begins in Birmingham, England. Then Dizzy travels with her mum to Scotland, and at the end she’s back in Birmingham.

This story is set in the hippie-time. That was around the seventies and eighties. The whole book is about the hippies, so there isn’t a real part which proves a year or something.
The time that’s covered in the story is about ten weeks. When Dizzy’s dad finds her back he says: ‘That’s a joke, Dizzy. I’ve been looking for you since the day after your birthday, the day you took of. Nine weeks and six days.’ And then after that, a few days more.

Characters
Dizzy is the main character of the book. She has got long brown hair, and wears normal clothes. But if she’s at the festivals with her mother, she wears other clothes like wide trousers and shabby shirts. She is a very nice girl, she wants to be nice to everyone, and always tries to help. I think she changes a little bit in the book. She stays the nice person who she was before, but also discovers a very different lifestyle, the hippie lifestyle; without much money you can be happy as wel.

Then we have Finn. At first sight he looks like a clumsy boy. He is tall, has got long hair in dreadlocks. His eyes are extremely beautiful, kind of blue-green, turquoise. He has lived at festivals since he was a little boy. First he became always angry when people stared at him because of his bare feet, his shabby clothes and strange hair. But now, when he’s a lot older, he’s always friendly to people, no matter what. I don’t think he’s changing a lot in the book. Maybe in the beginning he’s a little more shy facing Dizzy, but later they fall in love.

Mouse is also a nice character in the book. He’s a little boy, always playing outside. But when he’s washed, you can see his freckled face. He always steals, that became more a custom thing then something very necessary. He is a good boy. His mum couldn’t take care of him anymore because she was addicted, and that hurted Mouse very much. First he’s a little bit scared of Dizzy, but later he looks at her like she’s his sister. Leggit, Storm’s dog, is always with Mouse. That’s his one and only friend first. Later, Finn and Dizzy become also his real friends.

Summary
Dizzy’s mum left her when she was small. Once she hugged Dizzy more than usual, and the next day she was gone. Every day on her birthday she gets a postcard and a little present from her mum. Sometimes from Morocco, other times from Ireland. But this year, on her twelfth birthday, there’s nothing! When Dizzy is back from school, there’s a van in front of the house. When she comes in the house, there’s a strange looking woman, with shabby clothes and very many earrings. It’s her mum! Storm is her new name. Storm asks Dizzy to travel with her to Wales, and she wakes her in the night, and tells dad thinks it’s OK too. So they leave Birmingham, up to Scotland! (Yes, it was Wales, but it’s changes into Scotland) When they arrive at the festival, Storm turns out to have a new boyfriend, Zak. Dizzy meets very much people; Zak (Mouse’ dad), Finn, Mouse, Tess (Finns mum), and lots of others. They dance and talk and walk and eat and do fun things at the festival, and then they travel to the next festival. Finn becomes Dizzy’s friend, and step by step Mouse too. Dizzy doesn’t like Zak, and Storm isn’t also what she expected of her mum. She isn’t interested at all in Dizzy, it looks like Dizzy is just with her to look after Mouse. But Tess, Mouse and Finn áre nice persons. When it’s Finns birthday, he decides to take Dizzy to a beach. When they are there, it turns out that they love each other. And they kiss.. During the trip Dizzy sends her father postcards, and Storm posts them. On Finns birthday the make a bonfire. Mouse practiced the whole day on a BMX, and wants to show a stunt. He jumps over the fire, but it goes wrong.. the bike falls down, in the fire, and Mouse falls too. Finn runs into the fire (bare feet) and saves Mouse. Mouse’ face is a little bit burned, and parts of his body too. Finns feet are burned. They go to hospital and everything will be okay again. In the meantime Dizzy’s father called Tess, and he will come. When he comes, he tells Dizzy he didn’t know were she was, and he never got her postcards! Storm turns out to be a liar, she never sent the postcards and she never told Dizzy’s dad were they were. But now everything is ok. Dizzy has got her normal life back, she goes to school and lives in a house. She writes with Finn, and she is happy.

Favourite part
... I grab handfuls of sand to get a hold of myself, but the grains run away through my fingers. The hot sun presses me down. A hand brushes past my outstreched fingers, weaves between them. Finn. We lie still for a few minutes, fingertips touching, waiting for the world to stop. Then Finn is struggling upright, dragging me with him. I stumble against him, laughing, and his hands cup my face. He looks at me for a long moment, and then he’s kissing me. It’s not like I imagined. His lips taste of salt and sand and happiness. They’re soft, so soft. We break apart and we can’t stop staring at each other, wide-eyed. ...

I like this part very much, because the *tension* between Finn and Dizzy is gone at that moment! In fact, they know that they love each other, but they didn’t dare to say that. But now, Finn is brave enough to kiss Dizzy. It’s a very touching part, you really think aaaaah.. how sweeeeeet.

Essential words
Tepee: A tepee is a kind of tent, but round.
Van: A van is a kind of camper, truck.
Dizzy: It’s not essential, but it’s nice to know that Dizzy is not a normal name, but it means *duizelig*.
Hippie: To know what a real hippie is, read the extra assignment.
Woodstock: Woodstock is the most important hippie festival.

Opinion
Before reading this book, I already thought, wow, this could be a nice book. A nice cover is better than a dull standard cover. And the book turned out to be cool as well! It was readable, and it was a nice story. About a girl, so I could imagine her feelings and things like that very good. She went through a lot of things, problems with her mam, love, family and new experiences. I would recommend it to everyone, maybe more girls than boys, but some boys will like the story as well.

Extra assignment
How to be a real hippie..

Hippies travel all around the world, visiting festivals and meet other people. At the festivals, they listen to music, camp all together and talk and smoke together. They think if everybody is nice to other people, the world can be more peaceful, without wars and arguments. There were very many hippies in the sixties. They want everybody to be equal, and live in the same way.

Clothes:
As a hippie you can choose between four different styles or make combinations between those styles. Important things in the first style are grubby, washed t-shirts and decrepit jacks and trousers. Over your trousers you can wear second-hand shirts. Also worn out sweaters and second-hand coats are great. Your shoes have to be boots or sandals, and round glasses on your nose is also very good. This style is more fore the political conscious hippies.
More *happy* is another style. This style contains colorful incompatible clothes. The material is plain or has got motives with cirkels, spirals or blocks. Flowers are also totally *HOT*. Boys should wear wide trousers on their hips, shirts, jacks and ties. Girls wear trousers, very short skirts and dresses, ore hotpants. And also big caps and sunglasses. The shoes are high boots or plateau-soles.
The most characteristic clothing was the exotic style. Very much clothes from India, very long. With jewellery, and flexible material.

Hair:
Long hair is normal when you’re a hippie. It’s nice to dreadlock your hair, or just let it grow, don’t cut it!

Music:
Hippies love simple music, which was meant to lose consciousness, like drugs and meditation. Undergroundmusic was also popular. Jimi Hendrikx was very popular and Eastern music was also *hot*. The texts are very important, so protest-singers were popular, and ballad-singers. Dancing on music is more a way to express yourself, so there are no choreography.
These are examples of real hippie music:
* If you’re going to San Francisco – The mama’s and the papa’s
* Blowing in the wind – Bob Dylan
* Joe Cocker
* Jimmie Hendrix
* The Who
* Janis Joplin
*Grateful Dead
*Jefferson Airplane

And:
Blow! Blow stuff like weed, that makes you relaxed and feel more comfortable, and then you see the nice and positive things of life. But only start blowing when you’re happy, when you’re unhappy then the negative feeling will only be stronger.