From Publishers Weekly
In this sensitive novel, Hobbs (Carolina Crow Girl) chronicles the insecurities of a New York teen whose life is turned upside-down after a family tragedy. At the start of the novel, 15-year-old Olivia Trager, whose mother died the day she was born, loses her beloved grandmother, the woman who raised her. With nowhere else to turn, Liv heads to California to be with her father, Mark, an abalone diver who has neither spoken nor written to his daughter since she was a baby. Luckily, his gregarious girlfriend, Sam, is more welcoming than her reticent father and his shabby apartment. Liv opens up to Sam, but remains distanced from her father until he literally puts his life in her hands by making her his "tender," the person responsible for watching his lifeline while he dives. Introducing a cast of complex, convincingly vulnerable characters and possessing a keen understanding of adolescent moods and concerns, the author creates a taut psychological drama. Liv, her father and Sam grow closer together as they weather several crises including a boat collision at sea and Sam's discovery that she has cancer. Those seeking a thought-provoking, emotionally stirring read will become intimately involved in Liv's quest to understand herself and the man who abandoned her at birth. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-Fifteen-year-old Liv's life undergoes seismic upheaval when her grandmother, the strong, urbane woman who raised her, dies and leaves her to reconnect with her estranged father. Understandably bitter as well as grieving, the teen must leave New York City, her best friends, and her usual haunts and habits to meet the man who deserted her when his wife died in childbirth. The tiny coastal hamlet near Santa Barbara, CA, and her father, an abalone fisherman of extraordinarily few words and apparently fewer emotions, present Liv with so many psychological and physical challenges that looking back becomes a luxury. As she did in Carolina Crow Girl (2001) and Charlie's Run (2000, both Farrar), Hobbs gives readers a strong and personable protagonist caught in a complex series of events that offers contemporary echoes of folkloric themes. Here, Liv is a kind of banished princess, but it is her father who must be awakened from a 15-year-long disenchantment. As she struggles to come to terms with her new home, Liv befriends her father's girlfriend as well as a young man her own age who may or may not offer a romantic possibility in the future. The title, besides the obvious play on the characters' emotions, refers to the job she takes aboard her dad's boat. Hobbs's storytelling pace is quick without feeling rushed, drawing readers in immediately and inextricably. Each character becomes a person whom teens will understand, whether with sympathy or hesitation, and by book's end, Liv's future looks as though it will continue to be interesting.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
