If you were wanting great love advice from one of the world's most famous lovers, who would you ask?
I would want to talk to Juliet. After all she was a teen in love with a guy her parents hated so much that she had to fake her own death to be with him. Granted that didn't exactly work out as planned, but she has suffered for her love and probably has some great advice.
At least, that's what lots of people believe. Every year the city of Verona receives tons of letters addressed to Juliet asking for advice. Since the end of World War II, there's been an entire club devoted to answering those letters. And it's while they're in Verona studying Shakespeare and answering letters for the Juliet Club that the six characters in Suzanne Harper's new book, The Juliet Club, come together.
Suzanne was in the store the other day signing copies of The Juliet Club and her other teen book The Secret Live of Sparrow Delaney, so I sat down with her for a chat.
It turns out that she got to do lots of research for this book while she was writing it. Now normally you don't "get" to do research; you have to do it. But in this case it sounded like a whole lot of crazy fun. Suzanne can now:
- Do an Elizabethan dance
- Stage-fight with swords
- Speak some Italian - she liked this so much that she continued her lessons.
And if that wasn't enough, Suzanne got to visit Verona in Italy not once but twice. The second trip was for four days, and while she was there, she actually had the opportunity to visit the Juliet Club and read some of the letters that teenagers have sent in.
Got a question for Juliet? You too can write her. Send a letter properly stamped for international mail to:
CLUB DI GIULIETTA - THE JULIET CLUB
via Galilei 3 - 37100 Verona
Italy
And check out Suzanne Harper and her books.
(Originally posted at the blog I do for BookKids.)
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How fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
Who knew? A club devoted to answering letters to Juliet. People who actually write letters to Juliet.
The world is an amazing place.
How totally cool! Being a writer is the best.
Jinx! I just interview Suzanne today at Cynsations. Great minds or what? Yay!
Suzanne, Suzanne is just everywhere. And Shanna Burg will be at BookPeople Saturday so I'll have something about her next week.
Who thinks Cynthia will too?