From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-A moving novel set in Massachusetts in 1944. Attractive, popular Eleanor was being treated to a birthday dinner at the glamorous Palm Gardens when a fire broke out, burning her face and chest and taking her father's life. The resulting financial difficulties and the necessary move mean a change in school and friends. All that is left of the 17-year-old's former world is her mother, who is strained with grief and work, and her adoring, sometimes aggravating little sister. Eleanor struggles against her newly acquired social phobia to find employment in a kindly neighbor's pharmacy. She begins to make friends, go to the movies, and learn to drive but there are always heartbreaking setbacks as people react to her horrific scars. There are even problems with the brightest, most secret part of her life, a correspondence begun as a school project with a soldier being trained to go overseas. Robert falls in love with her words, her intelligence-and a picture she sent him taken before the fire. Eleanor is unable to mail the letters she has written telling him the truth. A masterful psychological writer, Twomey chooses not to tell Eleanor's story in strict chronological order, but to reveal it as Eleanor herself can bear to make the connections and discoveries. Although this is a very different story than her intensely written Charlotte's Choice (Boyds Mills, 2001), both have strong heroines and emphasize our ability to choose happiness even in difficult times.
Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 8-12. It is the summer of 1944, and 17-year-old Eleanor is working on her English assignment: write to a soldier. Her funny, encouraging letters go to Private Robert Bettencourt, a college graduate training to become a French interpreter. Robert writes back, telling Eleanor that he hopes to see her before he goes overseas and that he thinks she's very special. He's right, but he doesn't know the half of it. Eleanor has left some letters unsent--letters that describe the terrible fire that killed her beloved father and scarred her face and neck; letters that talk about her pain and her search for a job to help her mother and little sister; letters that reveal her feelings when strangers stare and comment about her scars. When her little sister tries to "help" by mailing the unsent letters, Eleanor knows that Robert will learn everything. This isn't as powerful as Twomey's earlier novel Charlotte's Choice (2001), but it still has plenty of atmosphere and an appealing, courageous heroine who gradually realizes her own strength. This unusual survivor/love story is certain to be a three-hanky read. Jean Franklin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
