There were three of them, three girls who dreamed and hoped and yearned.  They were ripe for tasting, for kissing, for loving, and each of them had a secret they didn't dare tell.

Three girls, three worlds, three secrets.

Kizzy's family was odd.  They were from the Old Country, and they believed in all kinds of things other people didn't think even existed, like vampires, and goblins, and ghosts, and the evil eye, and curses.  But Kizzy didn't tell anyone at school about that.  She was a junior in high school, and she talked about Mick Crispin, and how much she wanted to be the girl he sat with, and hugged, and kissed.  She wanted him so much that her soul hung half outside her body, hungering for it.  That was why the goblins wanted her soul-it would be easy to persuade her to give it up, because it was half gone already. 

But Kizzy is only one girl, and I promised three.  There is another girl living in India, a girl cursed with a beautiful voice, a girl who never speaks, because anyone hearing her voice will instantly fall down dead. 

And there is a third girl, a girl who had brown eyes until just before her fourteenth birthday, when they turned blue, like pale blue, cold winter ice.  It was a sign, but she didn't know it.  But her mother knew what it meant, and also knew that all she'd done to keep her daughter safe had been in vain.

How were these three girls linked?

This booktalk was written by Joni Richards Bodart, university professor, author, school/library consultant, and internationally known booktalker.

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  Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls: Goblin Fruit: In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls? Spicy Little Curses: A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love and decides to test her curse. Hatchling: Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful, fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious race of demons? Publishers Weekly Starred Review - Taylor offers a powerful trio of tales, each founded upon the consequences of a kiss. She explores the potentially awkward conceit in three dramatically different fantasies, each featuring a young female protagonist out of place in the world she inhabits: contemporary Kizzy, who so yearns to be a normal, popular teenager that she forgets the rules of her Old Country upbringing and is seduced by a goblin in disguise; Anamique, living in British colonial India, silenced forever due to a spell cast upon her at birth; and Esmé, who at 14 discovers she is host to another-nonhuman-being. The stories build in complexity and intensity, culminating in the breathtaking 'Hatchling,' which opens with a spectacularly gripping prologue (?Esmé swayed on her feet. These weren't her memories. This wasn't her eye?). Each is, in vividly distinctive fashion, a mesmerizing love story that comes to a satisfying but never predictable conclusion. Di Bartolo's illustrations provide tantalizing visual preludes to each tale, which are revealed as the stories unfold. Even nonfantasy lovers will find themselves absorbed by Taylor's masterful, elegant work. November 2, 2009 - The following title has been named Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year for 2009. $17.99 books;hardcovers | Ages 9-12

  
  Lips Touch: Three Times
  Ages 9-12 $17.99
  
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  Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls: Goblin Fruit: In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt today's savvy girls? Spicy Little Curses: A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love $17.99 Hardcover Book | Grade 7

  
  Lips Touch: Three Times
  Grade 7 $17.99