Greenroom Books

The Chrysalis - Cynthia Davis

Comments from our readers...

"The Chrysalis relates to everyone in any walk of life! This is an awesome book for just about everyone! I fell in love with it, and could not stop reading! - Stacey

"I really related to the character and the story because it's about things we all go through sometimes." - Jennifer

"This is a book you definitely want to read, it has some real life issues in it that we all deal with at one point in our teenage lives -- I loved it." - Susana

"More can be transformed in a chrysalis than just physical appearances" - Margaret

Comments from the press...

Cynthia Davis' first novel aimed at girls in their mid to upper teens is to be applauded. The main character in the book is Christina Brannigan, a young lady that many teenage girls may identify with. Christina is a teenager unhappy with herself, her appearance, her lack of a social life including a boyfriend, and she's unhappy that she's never landed a role in a school play. She decides that the summer is a time for a total change…she would disappear into a chrysalis of her own and emerge a new person.

But her summer turns into one challenge after another. Each crisis presents her with an opportunity to make choices in how she'll respond. In the midst of it all, a young man falls in love with her…just as she is…not as she thinks she needs to be for anyone to really love her. But the relationship also brings on special challenges and choices…choices that could have a lasting impact on the rest of her life. These are the same choices that many of our teen girls face in the latter part of their high school years.

Cynthia Davis hits the nail on the head. She takes you inside the thoughts and emotions of a teenage girl and brings you to the reality of how a decision made in a split second could have long lasting impact on a person's life.

More information regarding the book and the community of girls that inspired, enjoyed, and encouraged its writing, can be found on the websites: www.greenroombooks.com and www.backstageyouth.com

The Chrysalis will be most easily obtained online through the Greenroom Books website or by mail order. It is also available at Amazon.com. Put this one on your "must read" list for the teen girl in your life this summer.

Amanda Haskins
Daily Press
March 17 2002

Local youth minister and elementary school teacher Cindy Davis has written her first book, "The Chrysalis,"
(Greenroom Books, $10, 201 pages) under the publishing company she and her husband started this year, Greenroom Books.

The coming of age story follows Christina to summer camp after a disappointing year in high school. Her expectations for the year were high; she'd hoped to get a role in the school play and maybe a date to the prom. She expresses her disappointment in her journal when neither happens, "My junior year has done nothing but underscore my inability to leave my mark not only on this school, but the world in general."

Her aunt owns and runs Camp Edson and invites Christina to teach drama to campers, a group of poor inner-city kids.

Christina arrives, shy and threatened by the camaraderie the other camp counselors share, but quickly adapts to the group. She makes friends and even develops a crush on Mark, the teen-aged camp handy man.

The thrill of first love and the success of overcoming fears and obstacles give Christina the confidence she lacked when she arrived at the camp. She returns to school her senior year transformed by the events of the summer.

Davis uses the title "The Chrysalis" and caterpillar to butterfly metaphors to symbolize Christina's transformation.

The story is meant to inspire young girls struggling through the same adolescent doubts Christina struggles through, and it does so, like Christina, both clumsily and gracefully.

"The Chrysalis" is available for purchase at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center and SPOT Coffee and Crumbs in Newport News, online at www.greenroombooks.com and www.amazon.com or by mail at Greenroom Books, [12 N Juniper St., Hampton, VA 23669]. Send $13 to include shipping and handling.

THE CHRYSALIS. By Cynthia Davis. Greenroom Books, paper. The gifts of self-awareness, of self-faith, of faith in more--these are the greatest gifts of all, particularly to a bewildered teenage girl. In this novel, Christina doesn't think getting straight A's in class is the answer to knowing herself. She fuddles around with dresses and acting, is awkward, feels out of place. Then her aunt invites her to work for a summer at a camp for disadvantaged kids. There, in taking care of children much younger than herself, and in guiding them through a pouring rain, Christina comes to a greater awareness. But it's not so much what takes place in this novel, as how. The how is primarily Cynthia Davis' writing--witty, incisive, a joy to read. A friend tells Christina: "You want more than you think." In coming of age, Christina is faced with options, and they are clearly presented by a wise Davis. There's a lot of humor here, of teenagers messing about with each other, of dating and crying and struggling into and out of understandings. Beautiful hair and a trim waist are only part of the problem. "What she had learned most during the time in her chrysalis was that each life was its own miracle waiting to take flight. The moments that are captured, the dreams that are realized are as beautiful and fleeting as life itself. Now was her opportunity to hold a colorful and enticing moment in time, and she had to reach out her net to capture it." The Chrysalis happily succeeds on all levels, and author Davis is both a gifted storyteller and a remarkably eloquent writer on those emerging miracles called adolescents.

• More about The Chrysalis
• Meet Cynthia Davis
• Read the first three chapters!
• Buy The Chrysalis now!