Don't you hate it when a book is so heavy with "message" that it should sink like a lump of iron...and it doesn't?
Don't Hurt Laurie is one of those. It reads like a social worker's handbook on chronic child abuse--how is it covered up; why the kid doesn't tell anyone; why people don't notice; what the giveaway signs are ....
We know it all now, but back when the book was first published it wasn't a topic on the six o'clock news. You have to applaud Willo Davis Roberts for writing it out loud. And, incidentally, making a good story out of it. The nine-year-old, Tim, is an enduring hero.
I don't suggest it for an afternoon's light reading, but it's highly recommended for middle schoolers. Sort of a reminder that people are basically good and trusting which opens the door for a real nutcase to run amok...as long as they're sneaky about it.
Only one more book to go from Chapter 5, You Heard It Here First: Very Afterschool Specials. I've enjoyed it, but I'm looking forward to Girls Gone Wild: Runaways, Left Behinds and Ladies Living Off the Fat of the Land. But first, I get a grownup book again. Yeah
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