Bloomability

infobox Book |
name = Bloomability
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Sharon Creech
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Children's novel
publisher = Joanna Cotler
release_date = September 30, 1998
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 273 pages
isbn = ISBN-13: 978-0064408233

"Bloomability" is a book written by Sharon Creech about a young girl who lives with her semi-nomadic family in the modern day United States of America. She is given the opportunity to attend a The American School In Switzerland, a boarding school in Lugano, Switzerland, where the majority of the storyline takes place.

Plot summary

Dinnie (short for Domenica Santolina) Doone has spent most of her life travelling around the United States because her father is a trucker. Dinnie feels that she has settled into this routine of never having a permanent home until one night, her whole world changes. With her older brother in the army after ending up in jail again, her older sister pregnant and married, and her dad still on the road, Dinnie is taken away by her maternal aunt and her husband to Switzerland, where Uncle Max (her uncle) is the new headmaster of a boarding school. Dinnie is a student at the school, where she makes friends, sees new, exciting things, and has many adventures of her own.

Dinnie discovers herself while in the Swiss Alps, and, with her friends, she begins to realize the meaning of life itself. She undergoes a change and finally emerges from her bubble that had enclosed her for years.

Title

The title, "Bloomability", comes from Keisuke, one of Dinnie's friends in the novel. Keisuke is a Japanese student at the school who is slowly learning English, so "bloomability" emerged as his linguistic concept of the word "possibility".

Characters

Dinnie: Domenica Santolina Doone, "Dinnie," is the protagonist of the story. She is a young American teenager who is thrust into a cultured, diverse environment when she attends the international school her uncle is headmaster of in Switzerland. She is a kind, friendly, adjustable person.

Guthrie: Peter Lombardy Guthrie the Third, is anything but shy. This character lies next to the heart of Creech's novel - preach the Bloomabilities, possibilities and to celebrate each moment of life. Guthrie often shouts, Sono Libero, and Dinnie finally understands it was in the celebration of being alive. Guthrie is an optimistic fellow, seeing the good in everything. He also recites in the novel Robert Frost's well known poem, The Road Not Taken in a speech to the student body as the school year closes.

Lila: Lila King is another American Dinnie meets at the school. At first, Lila appears agreeable and quite friendly, but it isn't long before her true character is realized, and she becomes known for being pompous, hardheaded, and mean. Despite Lila's unfavorable qualities, Dinnie feels the need to stick by her as a friend and defend her. Guthrie refers to Lila as "the pistol".

Aunt Sandy: Dinnie's aunt and sister of Dinnie's mother. Aunt Sandy is also a teacher at the school.

Uncle Max: The husband of Aunt Sandy, he is the headmaster of Dinnie's school.

Keisuke: A boy who came from Osaka, Japan and Guthrie's best friend. Because English is not his first language, he often pronounces words differently (like stupid as "stewpod") and coins new words to define existing concepts (bloomability for "possibility"), which are picked up by his friends. He is good-humoured and bright.

Belen: A girl who was a roommate with Lila, and is from Madrid, Spain. She and Keisuke are in a relationship of sorts, though Belen is aware that her parents would not entirely approve of her dating a Japanese boy. She is a mature girl who comes across as somewhat moody and has strong opinions. However, she is not confrontational like Lila.

Mari: An Italian girl from Rome who joins Dinnie and her friends later in the novel, after the school's annual ski trip.

With the help of her new friends, Dinnie reveals her true self.