Harvey-Fitzhenry, Alyxandra 1974-

PERSONAL:

Born 1974, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Education: Attended York University. Hobbies and other interests: Making jewelry, belly dancing.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Canada.

CAREER:

Author.

WRITINGS:

Waking, Orca Book Publishers (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), 2006.

Contributor of poetry to journals, including Antigonish Review, Room of One's Own, OnSpec, and CV2.

SIDELIGHTS:

Canadian author Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry's young-adult novel Waking focuses on the emotional struggles a young teen encounters after the suicide of her mother. Beauty is a shy and introverted sixteen-year-old who tries to hide from the curious stares of her classmates after news of her mother's death becomes the topic of conversation at school. At home, the girl's widowed father has difficulties coping with his wife's death, and even goes to the extreme of not allowing sharp utensils inside the family's home. Nightmares featuring a mysterious "Shadow Lady" dominate Beauty's dreams, forcing her to question the meaning behind them. Luna, a new student in school, ultimately helps the teen reconnect with the joys in life, including her love for painting, while a budding romance with a classmate named Poe also aids in Beauty's recovery.

In School Library Journal, Elaine Baran wrote that Harvey-Fitzhenry's fiction debut is "about waking up from a nightmare—literally and figuratively," and added that Waking "is nicely crafted and will resonate with readers." Charles de Lint, in his review of the novel for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, explained that Waking recasts "Sleeping Beauty in a contemporary setting." "Harvey-Fitzhenry has a deft hand with her prose, slipping effortlessly between the third-person perspective of the real world to Beauty's first person narrative," De Lint added, dubbing Waking a "well-told, magical story."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Review of Materials, April 28, 2006, Susan Kemp, review of Waking, p. 488.

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, November, 2006, Rainbow Lightfoot-Mayer, review of Waking, p. 242.

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October-November 2006, review of Waking, p. 36.

Resource Links, April, 2006, Brendan White, review of Waking, p. 46.

School Library Journal, July, 2006, Elaine Baran, review of Waking, p. 104.

ONLINE

Alyxandra Harvey-Fitzhenry Home Page,http://www.waking.ca (June 7, 2008).