From Publishers Weekly
In addition to wading through the complexities of being 15, Skylar is starting summer school and also dealing with an unspoken trauma, gradually revealed to readers in parallel with Skylar's ability to articulate it. In a starred review, PW said, "Hopeful without being sugarcoated, this tale offers compassionate insight into loss." Ages 10-14.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-10-Something is terribly wrong with the Deacon family. Fifteen-year-old Skylar is registered for summer school, but her mother is afraid to let her travel via public transportation. Skylar is unnaturally anxious about the class and potential interactions with her classmates. She spends a lot of time in her sister's room, but readers sense there is something strange about that, too. Bit by bit, over the course of the novel, they learn the devastating truth: Skylar's older sister was abducted three years earlier and has never been found. As a result, friends and neighbors who were originally solicitous have become suspicious and hostile, and Skylar's mother is teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Thesman handles the characters caught in this dilemma with sympathy and understanding. Teens will be carried through the book by the lure of their unresolved secrets. Simultaneously, the Deacons are, however unwillingly, carried on through their lives by the passage of time. Alexandra is lost, but their remaining children are growing. Skylar knows that she cannot trust everyone, but she learns not to be universally distrustful, either. She undergoes a sort of rebirth during the summer and, while this is painful, it is also empowering. In abandoning the hope that her sister will return, in relinquishing the continued imaginary friendship with Alexandra, Skylar becomes able to form friendships with her classmates. While her mother retreats in fear, Skylar emerges from a cocoon. This is a very fine book.
Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Public Library, NY Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
