When Mary's emotionally distant parents send her to summer camp to help her cope with her infant sister's death, she befriends the sullen, solitary Laura, but it is Laura's betrayal, not friendship, that ultimately brings Mary closer to recovery.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From School Library Journal
Grade 5-7-After the crib-death of Felicity, Mary and her parents are so locked in their individual grief that they seem incapable of helping one another. Unable to communicate her pain, Mary acts out her unhappiness in some disturbing ways such as developing a fascination with lighting matches and watching them burn. Her parents decide that a change of scenery might help her and send her off to summer camp. At Camp Pine Grove, she meets Laura, who dabbles in voodoo, seances, and petty cruelty; and overweight, outgoing Celeste. Laura quickly draws Mary into her exclusive inner circle and chooses Celeste to tease and scorn. Slowly, Mary realizes how manipulative and insecure Laura really is compared to Celeste, who is a sincere, confident, and caring friend. These insights into her relationships with others help her to work out her difficulties with her parents. As the story ends, some healing has taken place. The problems of rejection, loneliness, and loss are sensitively treated. The characters are complex and believable as they relate to one another and face situations in their families and with others in society. Mary's first-person narrative reassures readers that the human spirit can overcome adversity through love, kindness, and strength.
Carol Schene, Taunton Public Schools, MA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Carol Schene, Taunton Public Schools, MA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Gr. 4-7. This deeply felt first novel speaks with spare drama about grief and anger and kindness. Eleven-year-old Mary's first-person, present-tense narrative begins with an exquisite chapter about her intimate bond with her infant sister; then there's the shock of the baby's sudden death. Mary's parents send her to summer camp, where she's drawn to a brooding loner, Laura, who dominates Mary and brings out the worst in her. Mary hates the ugly things that Laura makes her do; at the same time (like the girl in Jan Slepian's Risk 'N Roses, 1990), Mary finds it thrilling to be bad. Celeste, a kind girl who wants to be Mary's friend, seems dull and lumpish by comparison. Mary's too articulate about the way Celeste and Laura represent the conflicting parts of herself, but her view of her shattered parents is a convincing muddle of bewilderment and empathy. Kids will recognize the truth of the family sorrow and the lure of a dangerous friend. Hazel Rochman
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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