Saving Grace, by Darlene Ryan, is from Orca Book Publishers. I love these Orca Soundings books because they have great, short, high interest stories that even a reluctant reader could enjoy. Grace is a five-month-old baby whose fifteen-year-old mother, Evie, gave up for adoption, then kidnapped because she wanted her back. Evie told her boyfriend Justin that she just wanted to see the baby. He never would have agreed to her plan, which involved driving across Canada to Montreal and being a family. He doesn’t even want to acknowledge that the baby is his. While stopped at a convenience store, he makes a phone call, so Evie takes off with the baby, who she calls Brianna, on foot. She stops at a roadside restaurant, where a kind waitress gives her feeding advice and tells her about a clinic to take Brianna to since she has a cold and possibly a fever. Police are parked outside the bus station and she doesn’t know what to do. She hesitates because she doesn’t want to do anything to alter her plans, but at the last minute she turns toward the clinic. The book ends there, so you have to imagine the rest for yourself. I imagine that Evie will have to give the baby back to the family who adopted her, although maybe they will work out some sort of visitation arrangements. And maybe her Dad, who is raising Evie alone since her Mom died, will get her some counseling to help her deal with everything.
Being, by Kevin Brooks, is the story of sixteen-year-old Robert Smith, who accidentally discovers during a routine medical procedure that he is not entirely human on the inside, and that some extremely powerful, dangerous people will stop at nothing to find out what he is. He escapes from the hospital, and eventually hooks up with Eddi, a girl he met once who has a talent for creating new identities for people. As he eludes the people trying to find him, Robert tries to figure out what he is and what really makes someone alive. Robert and Eddi spend eight months together, hiding safely in Spain, until they catch up to him again, and after everyone in the apartment is dead or seriously wounded, Robert leaves with no more information about who or what he is than he had before. But it doesn’t matter to him and it’s not supposed to matter to us. The important thing is that he does exist. The author wrote at the end of the book that “the story wouldn’t be what it’s supposed to be” if the issues raised had been resolved. I don’t agree. I would have liked more answers and less nothingness at the end.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah, is the true story of the author’s experiences growing up in Sierra Leon, where at the age of twelve, he was separated from most of his family when rebel soldiers began destroying villages and killing civilians. He wandered with his brother and four other boys for a long time, starving and exhausted, until the village they were resting in was attacked and they were separated. He then wandered with another group of boys until they were almost to a village where his family was supposed to be, when it was attacked. The boys ended up staying in a village the army was using as a base. When the army realized it was running out of soldiers, they enlisted all the men and boys staying there. If Ishmael had refused, he would have been banished to die at the hands of the rebels. So he became a soldier. He was encouraged to avenge his loved ones. He witnessed and performed horrific violent acts on soldiers and civilians. Like all the soldiers, he used drugs, including marijuana and cocaine. One day, after about two years of fighting, some people from UNICEF came and the army lieutenant selected which boys would go with them. Ishmael and fourteen others were sent to the city of Freetown to be rehabilitated - to become children again. It took several months for their addictions to drugs to wear off, for their violent natures to subside, and for their attitudes to change where they could accept this new civilian life. Eventually, he went to live with a long-lost uncle and his family, and entered a new period of peace and happiness. He even traveled to New York to discuss the problems affecting children around the world. After he returned home, violence struck Freetown as the army and the rebels joined together to overthrow the newly elected President. Ishmael managed to escape to Guinea, and eventually returned to New York. This is an inspiring story of survival and perseverance against terrible odds. Although it was very well-written, not every young person would be able to read the true accounts in this book, and it should probably not be recommended to anyone under the age of twelve.
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