Meet teenage playwright David Mahooley. Ever since his ex-girlfriend tried to skewer herself on the school flagpole, he can't bring himself to write a word. Enter fast-talking Della Jones, an actress and writing coach with a gym bag full of massage oil, vodka, houseplants, and experiments in "mutual grooming." Her outrageous ways are enough to set David's mind and heart spinning and inspire a new kind of play. It will be his masterpiece—a play about teenage love the way it really burning, boiling, and passionate. David will write it. Della will be the star. But each new scene brings startling revelations about Della's past. And by the time the truth of it all is written. the two of them will never be the same.
Author
Paul Zindel was an American author, playwright and educator. In 1964, he wrote The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, his first and most successful play. The play ran off-Broadway in 1970, and on Broadway in 1971. It won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was also made into a 1972 movie by 20th Century Fox. Charlotte Zolotow, then a vice-president at Harper & Row (now Harper-Collins) contacted him to writing for her book label. Zindel wrote 39 books, all of them aimed at children or young adults. Many of these were set in his home town of Staten Island, New York. They tended to be semi-autobiographical, focusing on teenage misfits with abusive or neglectful parents. Despite the often dark subject matter of his books, which deal with loneliness, loss, and the effects of abuse, they are also filled with humor. Many of his novels have wacky titles, such as My Darling, My Hamburger, or Confessions of A Teenage Baboon. The Pigman, first published in 1968, is widely taught in American schools, and also made it on to the list of most frequently banned books in America in the 1990s, because of what some deem offensive language.
