Yesterday's Child [Hardcover]

Sonia Levitin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1997

While looking through her dead mother's things, sixteen-year-old Laura discovers a letter, written by her mother to a childhood friend, that implicates her in a long-ago murder, and the letter's existence puts Laura in danger."

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up. With skill and suspense, Levitin unveils a family's dark secrets. After her mother's sudden death, Laura, 16, is determined to discover why the two of them were never close. Searching through her mother's personal possessions, she finds a "Friends Forever" bracelet, a photograph of two teenage girls labeled "Megan and me," and an unmailed letter, written the day before the woman died, addressed to Megan. Laura mails the letter adding an explanation and hopes for a response. She then leaves on a class trip to Washington, DC, drawing close to her mother's hometown of Birch Bend, VA. With her friend Kim in tow or covering for her absence from scheduled events, Laura makes repeated visits to the town looking for the truth. Her obsessive investigation propels her to make a secret, one-day round-trip flight to Toronto to meet Megan. Piecing together the woman's disturbing reminiscences of Laura's mother with newspaper files in the Birch Bend library, Laura makes a shocking discovery: Megan and her mother killed Megan's parents. Laura's gripping quest will captivate teen readers. Although several chance encounters and repeated violations of school-trip rules seem improbable, the two girls create believable alibis. Tension builds steadily as Megan is slowly revealed as a psychopath who will kill again to keep the past buried. The complexities of friendship, loyalty, and honesty are fully explored. Wary of adults but yearning for parental love and understanding, Laura is a daring, resourceful, and introspective heroine.?Gerry Larson, Durham Magnet Center, Durham, NC
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-10. Although never close to her mother, Laura is nonetheless thrown for a loop by her parent's sudden death. To ease the pain of loss, she begins going through her mother's things, but instead of giving her a better understanding of her distant, mercurial mom, her snooping opens a Pandora's box full of secrets. Even her mother's name seems to be a lie. Levitin starts out strongly here, examining Laura's confused feelings about her parents and her relationship with her friend Kim; and the Nancy Drew^-like investigations are intriguing. The author strays off course and into melodrama, however, when she suddenly enters the villain's consciousness and when she has Laura fall in love (at first sight) with the boy who turns out to be the villain's son. As is true of Levitin's recent novel Evil Encounters (1996), there are some nice touches here, with the heroine somewhat more dimensional than is usual in this genre, but it's an uneven, not entirely satisfying read. Stephanie Zvirin

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689808100
• ISBN-13: 978-0689808104
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,732,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My life is mainly devoted to friends and family, my writing and my home. I enjoy hiking in the mountains, especially with my dogs. You can see their pics on my web page, and also pics of my family andfriends. I like to traveling to interesting places. I've been to Europe, parts of Asia, Hawaii, and many beautiful places in the U.S. My most exciting new project is working with a great team on creating a musical based on my novel The Return. We plan the premier in fall, 2006, and now we're casting and soon going into rehearsal.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!!!, January 3, 2003

By 

Jennifer (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yesterday's Child (Mass Market Paperback)

I loved this book! I usually hate reading but once I got this book for Christmas and started reading it, I couldn't put it down untill I was done! This is a great book and I would reccomend it to anyone who likes mystery and love stories. I totally desagree with some of the other reveiws saying that they woudln't recommend it to anyone. I recommend this to everyone, it's the best book I've ever read and I think anyone else would like it too.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yesterday's Child, March 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Yesterday's Child (Hardcover)

Yesterday's Child by Sonia Leviten 246 pages

Yesterday's Child is a well-written novel about a girl who is trying to find out about her secretive dead mother's past. When she and her friends go on a trip to Washington, D.C., she visits her mom's hometown, Birch Bend, and finds out more than she ever wanted to know. Later, she visits her mom's friend, Megan, and discovers how little she really knew about her mom. But the real shock comes when she visits the library of Birch Bend and finds out the real secret behind her mother's comments and fear. The reason why she abandoned her past and did nothing with her future... Loaded with action, suspense, mystery, and even a little romance, the story about Laura's search for knowledge is touching and thrilling. I couldn't put it down, and when I finally did, I dove back in again!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BOOK!, June 6, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Yesterday's Child (Library Binding)

Oh, if you only read one English Book in this world, let it be this one! It's mystery, adventure, romance and its great for everyone! This girl Laura scoops through her moms stuff and finds this letter that changes her life, because Laura finds out things about her mother that makes her seem like some person Laura never knew. Laura is definetely someone that teens can relate to not in the way of their moms being that secretive but in the way of being curious about their parents. Its a must-read!