Página inicialGruposDiscussãoMaisZeitgeist
Pesquise No Site
Este site usa cookies para fornecer nossos serviços, melhorar o desempenho, para análises e (se não estiver conectado) para publicidade. Ao usar o LibraryThing, você reconhece que leu e entendeu nossos Termos de Serviço e Política de Privacidade . Seu uso do site e dos serviços está sujeito a essas políticas e termos.

Resultados do Google Livros

Clique em uma foto para ir ao Google Livros

Carregando...

Dusssie (2007)

de Nancy Springer

Outros autores: Veja a seção outros autores.

MembrosResenhasPopularidadeAvaliação médiaMenções
657402,564 (3.6)2
At age thirteen Dusie makes the horrifying discovery that she, like her New York artist mother, is a Gorgon--a Greek mythological monster sprouting snakes from her head and capable of turning humans into stone with one angry look.
Nenhum(a)
Carregando...

Registre-se no LibraryThing tpara descobrir se gostará deste livro.

Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro.

» Veja também 2 menções

Mostrando 1-5 de 7 (seguinte | mostrar todas)
I like this! Poor Dusie - not only does she get her first period unexpectedly, the next day she wakes up with a head full of snakes. Standard American middle school student suddenly has to deal with being the daughter of a gorgon, the existence of a good many other mythological females (the Siren, the Sphinx (Greek, not Egyptian), etc), and her own abilities as a gorgon. Including petrifying the cute boy she's had her eye on, when he teases her a bit too much and gets her angry... Oh yes, and unlike her mother, Dusie (short for Medusa) can hear her snakes talking in her head - and they can hear her. Cy is confusing - I kept expecting him to turn out to be some kind of monster-hunter, but he seems to be just what he is. Nice ending, too - not too sweet, but solutions to a heck of a lot of problems. There are some convenient plot holes - Dusie's mom is petrified of being found out, but she still sends her daughter to a psychiatrist because she can hear the snakes, for instance. Still, fun story and nice moral(s) (though a leeetle bit too heavy-handed, I think - at least, reading as an adult). Enjoyable. ( )
  jjmcgaffey | Oct 5, 2018 |
Poor Dusssie-

The onset of puberty is tough for every girl, but Dussie gets snakes on her head to go along with it. Since Dussie's full name is Medusa Gorgon, perhaps she should have expected it. It's bad enough that she can't go to school and hang out with her friends, but then the snakes start talking to her. No great depths are plunged here, but its original and creative, and has a nice message of forgiveness and self-acceptance that isn't too heavy handed. ( )
  JanetNoRules | Sep 17, 2018 |
Dusie is having a bad day. Puberty has hit and it has hit 13 year old Dusie with a real curve. Not only is it her 'time of the month,' she has also woken up to find that she has a full head of writhing snakes instead of hair! Talk about freaking out!

When her mother sees here the reaction is one of 'oh dear' and not freaking. Seems there is something that Dusie's mom has never told her. The reason why her mom wears a turban all the time? It isn't because she is a well known sculptor and it is just an artistic quirk. Nope, seems Dusie's mom is really a Gorgon...like in Greek mythology. In fact, Dusie is named for her aunt Medusa!

This is just swell! How will Dusie ever get a boyfriend with a rainbow of snakes on her head? Don't boys notice the girls with nice clothes, hair and skin?

On top of this she runs into the boy of her dreams and gives him a look that practically turns him into.... I don't want to give the whole story away.

It is entertaining and there is a lesson to be learned from what Dusie goes through. A bit more meat to a humorous tale of a teen learning about life. ( )
  ChazziFrazz | Oct 20, 2017 |
Springer, Nancy. (2007). Dusssie. New York: Walker & Company.

0802796494

166 pages.

Appetizer: The morning after Dusie gets her first period she wakes to discover her hair has transformed into snakes (luckily, none of them are poisonous!). While this causes a wee-bit of a panic for thirteen-year-old Dusie, her mom doesn't seem to be surprised. In fact, it would seem her mother may have dreaded this. But even her mom is surprised when Dusie realizes she can hear the thoughts of all her new 27 snakes on her head.

The shocking change on the top of her head leads Dusie to uncover the secrets her mother has been keeping from her all Dusie's life and she'll embark on a journey of self-discovery (as opposed to a mythological quest) to find a way to undo the magic curse.

With both references to fairy tales and Greek Myths, it'd be easy to think of Dusssie as a "girl-version" of the Percy Jackson series. Dusssie is more focused on emotions and a potential romance than adventure. Dusie wants to feel loved, but she's not certain she can find love with 27 snakes slithering on top of her head. While there is a hint of a prophecy (or riddle, as the case may be) this book is more rooted in the personal, instead of a nation-saving quest. It feels a lot like an allegory, exploring a lot of the tensions of femininity and girl-becoming-womanhood-ness. Stuff.

I thought Springer did an excllent job of putting the reader (me!) in the mind-set of what it would be like to have...snakes for hair. An early scene shows the snakes feeling threated when Dusie tries to return to school. How do the snakes attempt to deal with their fear? Well....

"Deploy musssk! Deploy fecesss!" (p. 19).

The horror. And, ewwwww (but also hilarious!). That would be a very not fun condition to deal with. It made me so thankful that my hair was an ordinary bunch of dead cells. Thank you, world, for that.

Previously, I'd read Springer's first Enola Holmes mystery, The Case of the Missing Marquess. I absolutely LOVED the feminist twists she presented in Victorian England by giving Sherlock Holmes a super clever little sister. And that sense of female empowerment is also in Dusssie (which, personally, makes me want to do a little feminist happy dance. What does a feminist happy dance look like? It may or may not involve a lot of bending and flexing of muscles. That's all I'll possibly (not) reveal).

As I was reading, I felt that Dusie's maturation from a girl into a woman and coming to terms with who her mother was and is seemed to be the heart of the story. Of course, others may disagree. (I would, of course, love to read your interpretations in the comments!)

Some one else may want to focus on the way beauty is perceived. A teacher could also use this book with a lesson on the snakes that are commonly found in the U.S.A. To better understand her condtion, Dusie researches what the types of snakes are on her head (and this serves as a metaphor for her getting to know herself as well).

But now, having been so positive for all these paragraphs, let's take a moment to look at the book cover once more:

Hmmm.

I don't like it. While it definitely made me think of Medusa, nothing about the girl's face would want to make me pick the book up. Plus, I didn't get that the middle 's' was being spelled with a snake at first. (This is especially confusing because the character's actual name is Dusie. Only the snakes call her Dusssie.)

I think the cover is too literal. It doesn't make me want to pick up this story. Ya know? In my head, I see more of an outline of a Medusa head. Or maybe an image that would be more symbolic. But since I have no art skills, I can't actually show you what I'm thinking.

What do you-all think?

Dinner Conversation:

"Color me stupid, but I was thirteen before I understood why my mother always wore a turban. I thought it was just part of her artistic weirdness. I had no clue until my own hair turned into snakes" (p. 1).

"Mom's name hadn't meant a thing to me. I mean, who knows what a gorgon is anymore? Mom hadn't told me until today that under the turban her hair was vipers, under the polish her fingernails were bronze, under the caps her teeth were fangs. She hadn't told me that she'd had wings surgically removed by a doctor who could be blackmailed to keep quiet. She had told me, years ago, that she'd named me after her dead sister, but she hadn't told me that Dusie was a nickname--short for Medusa" (pp. 7-8).

"A coldly regal voice said in my mind, we prefer to be addresssed as ssserpentsss.
"I would prefer if you would shut up!"
I heard a hissy murmur from the crowd, and the regal one said, Be polite. We bite" (p. 13).

"He never got to say any more. If looks could kill...but mine could. I didn't realize in time, but I felt it happen as anger blazed in me, my snakes thrashed and struck at the air, my eyes flared fire, and Troy...Troy turned to white stone" (p. 20).

"My mother had been lying to me. All my life. She'd let me think that while I was in school she spent her days at some studio somewhere, chipping away like Michelangelo, when really...really she was a serial killer, sort of" (p. 24).

"I am going to get rid of you, " I told my snakes...
Go ahead, said the scarlet king snake, and all the others gave a hissy titter, sss-sss-sss. They didn't act like I was scaring them. Not at all. They seemed completely sure I couldn't do it.
Or maybe they knew something I didn't" (pp. 77-78).

Tasty Rating: !!!! ( )
  SJKessel | Jun 26, 2012 |
I happen to love Nancy Springer's work to begin with, but this slight novel is still well-handled, while playing on the Greek Myth trend popular these days. It's only when 13-year-old Dussie wakes up with a head full of snakes the day after getting her first period that she learns that her mother is in fact one of the Gorgon sisters, and Dussie herself is half-immortal. Dussie reacts in a perfectly reasonable adolescent fashion, mad at her mother and unwilling to talk to her. That the turban her mother always wears conceals a coif of vipers is bad enough, but unlike Dussie, her mother doesn't hear her own snakes talking-- and doesn't believe Dussie does. Once Dussie tries to leave the house with facial-mudded snakes disguised as dredlocks, things get worse. A visit to "The Sisterhood" suggests there may be a way out, and a kindly acquaintance might also help... but Dussie herself makes the final choices. ( )
  bunnyjadwiga | May 5, 2010 |
Mostrando 1-5 de 7 (seguinte | mostrar todas)
sem resenhas | adicionar uma resenha

» Adicionar outros autores

Nome do autorFunçãoTipo de autorObra?Status
Nancy Springerautor principaltodas as ediçõescalculado
Elwell, TristanArtista da capaautor secundárioalgumas ediçõesconfirmado
Você deve entrar para editar os dados de Conhecimento Comum.
Para mais ajuda veja a página de ajuda do Conhecimento Compartilhado.
Título canônico
Título original
Títulos alternativos
Data da publicação original
Pessoas/Personagens
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês. Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
Lugares importantes
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês. Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
Eventos importantes
Filmes relacionados
Epígrafe
Dedicatória
Primeiras palavras
Citações
Últimas palavras
Aviso de desambiguação
Editores da Publicação
Autores Resenhistas (normalmente na contracapa do livro)
Idioma original
CDD/MDS canônico
LCC Canônico

Referências a esta obra em recursos externos.

Wikipédia em inglês

Nenhum(a)

At age thirteen Dusie makes the horrifying discovery that she, like her New York artist mother, is a Gorgon--a Greek mythological monster sprouting snakes from her head and capable of turning humans into stone with one angry look.

Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas.

Descrição do livro
Resumo em haiku

Current Discussions

Nenhum(a)

Capas populares

Links rápidos

Avaliação

Média: (3.6)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5 1
3 9
3.5 2
4 6
4.5
5 3

É você?

Torne-se um autor do LibraryThing.

 

Sobre | Contato | LibraryThing.com | Privacidade/Termos | Ajuda/Perguntas Frequentes | Blog | Loja | APIs | TinyCat | Bibliotecas Históricas | Os primeiros revisores | Conhecimento Comum | 203,187,715 livros! | Barra superior: Sempre visível