Fiedler, Lisa

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Monroe, CT.

CAREER:

Writer.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

Curtis Piperfield's Biggest Fan, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Lucky Me, Clarion Books (New York, NY), 1998.

The Case of the Cheerleading Camp Mystery, HarperEntertainment (New York, NY), 2000.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Starring in Switching Goals, HarperEntertainment (New York, NY), 2000.

Dating Hamlet: Ophelia's Story, Holt (New York, NY), 2002.

Know-It-All, Simon Pulse (New York, NY), 2002.

Romeo's Ex: Rosaline's Story, Holt (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Lisa Fiedler has written many novels for young adult readers, including some that take liberties with the classic dramas of William Shakespeare. In Dating Hamlet: Ophelia's Story, Fielder retold Shakespeare's classic tragedy Hamlet from the point of view of Hamlet's love, Ophelia. She used the same approach to create another unique tale in Romeo's Ex: Rosaline's Story, which recounted the story of Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of one of Romeo's former girlfriends.

Fiedler created an original, contemporary heroine in her first novel, Curtis Piperfield's Biggest Fan, and its sequel, Lucky Me. The character is Cecily "C.C." Caruthers, an aspiring writer who attends a Catholic girls' school. C.C., who narrates the novels, is sincerely interested in her faith and spirituality, but she is also keenly interested in boys. In the first book, C.C. is in the ninth grade. She worries about enjoying kissing too much, struggles to express herself in her poetry, and relates it all in a voice that is "outrageous, irreverent, and also serious," according to Hazel Rochman in Booklist. Rochman found Fiedler's debut to be a "hilarious" book. C.C.'s story continued in Lucky Me, which continues on immediately after the events in Curtis Piperfield's Biggest Fan concluded. The themes are slightly more mature in this book, as is C.C.; she still proves to be "an engaging commentator on the social life of young teens," and is both thought-provoking and funny, according to Lauren Adams in a review for Horn Book. Rochman, in another Booklist review, found the sequel to be "candid and hilarious."

Fiedler took considerable liberties with Shakespeare's Hamlet to create an entirely new twist on the classic drama with Dating Hamlet. Hamlet's love, Ophelia, is generally considered a weak and passive character, one who ends by committing suicide. In Fiedler's version of the events, Ophelia is clear-thinking, strong-willed, and devoted to life. Her suicide is not even real, merely a staged event to help Hamlet avenge his father's murder. Fiedler uses excerpts of dialog from the real play and interweaves them with her own, and her additions are "aptly full of the wordplay Shakespeare's Hamlet is so fond of," according to Jennifer M. Brabander in Horn Book. Brabander felt that the "inventive" story would draw readers in and pique their interest in Shakespeare's original play, but she also believed that those dedicated to Shakespeare's version of the story would also enjoy and benefit from Dating Hamlet. "Those who have read Hamlet will get more from this book than those who have not," in the opinion of Kliatt reviewer Claire Rosser, who described Fiedler's novel as "a comedy, turning the tragedy of Hamlet upside down." Rosser also praised the author's inventive mingling of modern and Shakespearian language and her clever reinterpretation of classic lines from the play. "This is quite a lot of fun," Rosser concluded.

Romeo's Ex took the same approach as Dating Hamlet. The narrator is Rosaline, a cousin of Juliet Capulet, who was briefly pursued by Romeo Montague. Having seen what disasters love can lead to, Rosaline has decided to remain chaste. She wants to focus on her career instead. Like Dating Hamlet, this story turns the original on its head, and freely uses new characters and interpretations to create a very different story, while at the same time incorporating much of the classic dialog and plotline. It is "extremely useful for students struggling with a first reading of Shakespeare's work," stated Johanna Lewis in the School Library Journal. Claire Rosser, in a review for Kliatt, found Fiedler's revision of the tragedy to be funny and "often moving," and also recommended it as complementary to the study of Shakespeare's classic. Romeo's Ex was also recommended by a Kirkus Reviews writer, who credited Fielder with "giving the timeless tale enough twists to engross Shakespearean fans and novices alike."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1995, Hazel Rochman, review of Curtis Piperfield's Biggest Fan, p. 152; November 15, 1998, Hazel Rochman, Lucky Me, p. 580; September 15, 2002, Hazel Rochman, review of Dating Hamlet: Ophelia's Story, p. 226; September 15, 2006, Ilene Cooper, review of Romeo's Ex: Rosaline's Story, p. 69.

Horn Book, November, 1998, Lauren Adams, review of Lucky Me, p. 727; January-February, 2003, Jennifer M. Brabander, review of Dating Hamlet, p. 70.

Kirkus Reviews October 15, 2002, review of Dating Hamlet, p. 1529; September 1, 2006, review of Romeo's Ex, p. 902.

Kliatt, November, 2002, Claire Rosser, review of Dating Hamlet, p. 9; September, 2006, Claire Rosser, review of Romeo's Ex, p. 10.

Publishers Weekly, November 25, 2002, review of Dating Hamlet, p. 69; October 16, 2006, review of Romeo's Ex, p. 55.

School Library Journal, November, 2002, Betsy Fraser, review of Dating Hamlet, p. 164; October, 2003, review of Dating Hamlet, p. S67; February, 2004, Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, review of Dating Hamlet, p. 83; November, 2006, Johanna Lewis, review of Romeo's Ex, p. 134.