Brianna on the Brink

Gr 9 Up—Despite coming from a dysfunctional family and not having much money for the type of clothes her friends wear, Brianna is a popular cheerleader. A night out clubbing with her best friend-and a fake ID-ends with a one-night stand with a man who dies of a heart attack. Adding to this tragedy, Brianna soon finds out that she is pregnant and that the man was her English teacher's husband. Her sister, with whom she is living, kicks her out of the house, and Brianna finds herself on the streets. In a strange turn of events, Jane, her English teacher, offers her a home in return for assistance with an aging father and helps Brianna decide what to do about the baby. While the story line itself is rather predictable, it does have some interesting twists and turns-and it isn't preachy or didactic. In this debut novel, McInnes has managed to make Brianna a realistic 16-year-old without resorting to stereotypes. Jane, although almost a caricature of an English teacher, is a sympathetic character who, despite dealing with her own grief and negative feelings toward Brianna, follows her conscience and does what she feels she needs to do. The crux of the book is the concept of family and what it really means. All in all, this is a fairly well written book with a good deal of teen appeal.—Janet Hilbun, Texas Women's University, Denton, TX