Finally--reading--

One of the kind of books I hoped to find with this reading experiment--one I couldn't put down. 


To Take a Dare by Paul Zindel and Crescent Dragonwagon


The teaser on the cover says,
Sometimes the only way to hang on to yourself is to leave everything else behind.

That says it.  This is the kind of teen book I want to write myself.  It's honest, flawed, not preachy--but saying something that teens need to hear during those hard years.  When adults' many imperfections are in your face and you've got to go your own way, go it.  In her case, the imperfections amounted to downright abuse--failure to love from a mother and verbal abuse from a father.  You cry at that point but the authors have warned you beforehand, allowed you to prepare yourself mentally for the worst so the tears stay inside.

(That bugged me, by the way, just like it did in The Book Thief.  On the other hand, if I hadn't been forewarned that the main character would find love in the end, I might have stopped reading at the sad point.   (FYI, this isn't a spoiler.  She tells it in the first sentence.))

So, if you're a teenager, you should read it.  And then go read some of my books.