Jailbait--Leslea Newman

This book has been on my nightstand for a little while... I had another library's copy (in fact the only other copy in the system) because mine was checked out. Apparently the day my copy came back (isn't that rather possessive of me? I should say my library's copy, but let's face it I *am* the YA Librarian and that teen section is mine, baby!). Where was I? Oh yeah, the day my copy came back, a father saw it on the shelf and decided it wasn't appropriate. He filled out a form and everything. I just happened to check my e-mail on a Sunday evening and my co-worker had e-mailed me to tell me what happened, so I was able to read most of the other library's copy and be prepared when I went to work on Monday. It's still an official process that I probably can't talk about. I will update when I can...

Andi is an overweight, vulnerable girl in 1971. Her best friend has moved away. Her brother is in college. Her parents are self-involved people. She's picked on at school, friendless and pretty isolated from anyone who could help her. She's walking home from school one day and an older man drives by and waves. She's intrigued by him and begins fantasizing about him. After repeatedly driving past her, one day he stops. She gets in his car. (This is where the new mom in me said "That's it, my children go nowhere without me until they're 30!"). He takes her to an abandoned house and they become more and more intimate, until after her 16th birthday when they "go all the way." She lies to him and tells him her name is "Vanessa" but she knows nothing about him at all. She foolishly believes she is going to marry this man but she doesn't know his last name or where he lives or how to reach him. She is beyond stupid, but it's realistic. Teenage girls, especially ones with self-esteem issues (um, all of them) and ones who have no one to say "Dude, wake up!" do stupid things. I am so glad I had a boy first. (Yes another baby reference, deal with it.) Things progress and get creepier and creepier until Andi finally realizes that she's engaging in risky behavior and learns her lesson. The book has a strong moral lesson and it's clear that this is a cautionary tale.

Aside from the author saying "This is 1971" there were no clues as to the time period. There were no internet or cell phones, so I suppose it was easier for Andi to be cut off from people, but other than that there wasn't a very good sense of setting.

I admit that while I was reading this I was looking for things that could be objectionable and arguments against those objections, so my review is probably a bit skewed... it's not great literature, I didn't enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed the other controversial books I've read this year, but it's an important book and it deserves to be read.


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Reading: Mister Monday--Garth Nix
On My Nightstand: Grim Tuesday, Drowned Wednesday--Garth Nix