Young Adult Books (ages 12+) • Novels

Defne'yi Beklerken
Waiting for Defne

Aslı Der

Editor: Mine Soysal

A diary full of secrets that witnesses the loneliness of a high school student...

Following her novels enjoyed by children, Aslı Der who ranks in the 2010 Honour List of IBBY makes a debut with her novels for young adults. The novel narrates the blind alleys that individuals are driven to by family, school and business life and miseries caused by lack of communication through the eyes of a high school girl who relates her rebellion with words. Der draws attention to the peer bullying in schools, the disappointments, hopes and efforts of children dragged into loneliness by adults who pursue their own dreams and objectives using an inspiring language.

Overview

Defne is a fourteen year old teenager who is going through the blues, anxiety and excitement of stepping into adolescence. She starts a new diary. The young girl wants to get over her timidity and despair. On the first page of her journal, she notes that although she would like to forget the bad events of the past, they do not vanish. One day Defne is found unconscious in her bed. While she is taken to the hospital, her mother finds her diary and while waiting for her daughter to wake up, she begins to read it.

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AUTHOR

Aslı Der

She was born in İstanbul in 1975. Der studied philosophy at Boğaziçi University. She has many translations from English and French to Turkish. Her first children’s novel Sheroks the Little Witch (Küçük Cadı Şeroks, 2001) brought her deep and rich knowledge of philosophy into children’s literature. Then, in sequel to her first book, she wrote Big Trap (Büyük Tuzak, 2007) and the book was awarded as IBBY Turkey Children’s Novel of the Year 2007. She also took her extremely deserved place on […]
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