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This is a book about a troubled teen, Jim, who meets another trouble teen, Rachel. Both have been isolating themselves from the world and from each other as well. Slowly they help each other rediscover their own feelings and see color in their surroundings once again. In a way, this is a love story written from the guy's point of view as he and Rachel learn to love themselves again as well as each other.
This book was originally written in the 1970s when Mrs. Wood was teaching high school outside San Francisco. It has been revised by the author and re-released in 2006. The book draws the reader into the action immediately and holds the reader's interest throughout the story. It is not a lengthy book at 136 pages, and the vocabulary level is easy. Most people could read this in a matter of hours. However, I found that time is needed to process the feelings being dealt with. While I did read it in one sitting, I felt rushed when finished.
The book is very thought provoking. It deals with responsibility, peer interactions, hopes, worries, and problem solving in the teen years in a Biblical and moral fashion-not by addressing those topics specifically but through the character's actions. The book did not dwell on awakening feelings toward the opposite sex, though it was touched on. I found it a book that I did not immediately forget and continued to think over in my mind after I had completed reading. This book would be good for a church library as well as a high school or junior high library. I would recommend this book to teen readers, both boys and girls, though I think it might be too "deep" for a younger child. I did not see any potential problems for parents of teenagers to be concerned with.
Product review by Nancy Wagner, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC, September 2006
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