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Dented Cans
by Heather Walsh
Kindle Edition, 150 pages
Published November 2nd 2012 by Amazon Digital Services
Premise:
A family secret is revealed during an ill-fated—yet hilarious—trip to Disney World.
Sixteen-year-old Hannah Sampson knows her family is not what you would call normal. Her father compulsively buys dented cans and has a particular fondness for cans without labels, which are extremely discounted because their contents are a mystery. Her mother takes countless pictures of her family and then glues them down into the pages of her scrapbooks, but does not allow anyone to look at them. Ryan, Hannah’s mischievous fourteen-year-old brother, is headed straight for the remedial track at the local community college, if he’s lucky. Ben, her eight-year-old brother, is a walking sound effects machine, who prefers to communicate with noises rather than words. While Hannah is focused on escaping her working-class Connecticut suburb, she also finds herself being tugged back home as she worries about her brother Ben.
Hannah’s parents inflict one last family vacation on the Sampson children, a trip that goes comically wrong almost from the get-go. Hannah is forced to confront her family’s past in Disney World, of all places, when an emotional argument prompts her parents to disclose a secret they have been keeping from the children for sixteen years. Ultimately, she must decide whether to leave her hometown and not look back, or to focus on helping her family.
Where did you get the idea for your story - can I ask? So many of the family quirks sound too close to reality!!
While most of Dented Cans is fiction, a few things from the novel are plucked from real life. My dad really did buy dented cans—even unlabeled ones! My family went on a number of vacations to Disney World, although our trips tended to be a lot more successful than the Sampsons’. I have three younger brothers (Hannah has two), and I grew up in a suburb in Connecticut similar to the fictional North Prospect in the novel.
Do you have a favorite scene?
I have a soft spot for Chapter 6, where Hannah is studying her SAT words and incorporating them into her description of Disney. I especially like the scene in this chapter where they are on the Spaceship Earth ride and not exactly being model tourists.
Share something personal!
I am a foodie. I’ve lived in New York City and San Francisco, two of the best places for a foodie to live. We just moved to Brookline last year, so I have been exploring the food scene here. Each city has its strengths when it comes to food. I also have a terrible sweet tooth, and I am happy to report that all three locations have great desserts.
Giveaway:
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