Daily Prompt – May 31, 2026

This is certainly not the first book I ever finished and I can’t honestly say I remember the story entirely but its a book that has always stood out in my brain. “Seventeen Against the Dealer” by Cynthia Voigt. It’s the last in a series of novels she wrote about the Tillerman Family. I’d say it’s a coming of age story but the reality is the protagonist, Dicey Tillerman had to come of age much earlier in the series.

I’m pretty sure I read most if not all of the books in the series but this is the one that always stood out. It’s the one I still have in my library today. The original copy from when I was younger. This book taught me so many lessons about life and the compromises we make as adults. I think it also helps that the title is a blackjack reference and blackjack is something that is very meaningful to me because of my grandfather.

Still as I take time while writing this to revisit the book, I realize how much like Dicey I am despite very different lives. I recognize how much of how I live my life is shaped by the lessons learned from this book published when I was 10 years old and likely read about that time as well.

We aren’t always aware of what shapes us until we are. I’m not trying to be enigmatic. Think about the things that you quote or reference regularly and they maybe reflect on why. The concept of 17 against the dealer is something I bring up often much like catch-22, another book I have taken a lot of learning from. But in this case, I never really thought about it being the book as much as the blackjack but its really is both. I don’t know if these books are as popular now but they should be. They are classics in their own way.