Who Will Speak for the Lamb? [Hardcover]

Mildred Ames (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 11 and up

Although at first antagonistic to one another, high school senior and former model Julie and college freshman Jeff find their mutual interest in an activist group fighting for animal rights gives both of them a chance to become individuals in the shadow of domineering mothers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After suffering a nervous breakdown, famous teen model Julie moves to California to attend high school as a "normal" senior. But on her first day of school, she gets pulled into a demonstration for animal rights by classmate Laura and her older brother Jeff, which gains her the public attention she desperately wants to avoid. Julie takes her first faltering steps away from her mother's domination by becoming friends with Laura (who fills her in on the animal rights movement), and by paying Jeff to teach her to drive. Julie and Jeff warm up to each other, and discover that they have a lot in common. Their mothers have plans for them contrary to their wishes, and by story's end, both must make a stand for independence. At its best, Ames's ( Conjuring Summer In ) book engagingly depicts a budding relationship while emphasizing the need for young adults, at some point, to follow their own paths. The book's message about the horrors of "scientific" experimentation on animals is occasionally heavy-handed and intrusive, and secondary characters are painted with too broad a brush. Ages 13-up.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9-- Julie Peters, a former New York teen model, hopes that her family's move to California will mean a chance for her to escape from her mother's manipulations and begin to live her own life. The first friends she makes in high school, Jeff and Laura, are animal rights activists. Ames leaves readers in no doubt about the parallel that she is drawing between Julie as a victim of her mother's ambition and animals as victims of our society which tortures them in the guise of research. The book's prologue is a graphic description of a lamb being slaughtered in a high-school science class. The situation is furthered loaded when it is revealed that Julie's father is a scientist who does deprivation experiments on infant monkeys. Readers will enjoy the modeling career details, sympathize with Julie's determination to find herself, and even have their consciousness raised in the matter of animal research, but the story as a whole is not satisfying because plot and character development are subordinate to the book's message. --Ruth S. Vose, San Francisco Public Library
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins Childrens Books; 1st edition (May 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060201118
• ISBN-13: 978-0060201111
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,628,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Important lessons, October 8, 2004

By 

Guitar Girl "jillohc" (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Will Speak for the Lamb? (Hardcover)

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially because it addresses the animal issues she is very concerned about in her own surroundings. Too many texts either sidestep or sugarcoat the use of animals in experimentation; this one tells students what it's really like, an honesty that lets them make critical choices about an important societal issue.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars propaganda disquised as a teen novel, September 22, 2004

By 

Proud to Stand for Science (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Will Speak for the Lamb? (Hardcover)

It speaks volumes that the radical animal rights group PETA has chosen this as a book for holiday giving for young people. The message about the use of animals in biomedical research is heavy handed, simplistic and wrong.