Dirty Little Secrets

Gr 8-Up Lucy keeps a horrendous secret. At her old school, it accidentally slipped that her mother's obsessive hoarding forced Lucy, her brother, and her sister to live in the midst of endless stacks of junk and filth, earning Lucy the nickname "garbage girl." Now, starting her junior year in a new school, she has a great best friend, a potential boyfriend of her dreams, and no one gets to see the interior of her house. Since her older siblings have moved out and her father is remarried, she lives alone with her unstable motheruntil the night Lucy comes home and finds that the woman has died in the rubble. She panics about reporting the death, because then everyone will discover the truth about their living conditions. Lucy's attempts to clear the massive amounts of trash from the house, to no avail, lead to an ultimate "solution" that is shocking, tragic, desperate, and believable. Characters, situations, and settings are vivid, and dialogue rings true. As the teen tries to dispose of the debris before calling the police, effective and well-placed flashbacks triggered by unearthed items link her remembrances about what brought the house to its present condition and reflect her feelings about tense and frustrating parental and sibling relationships. As a valuable new addition to heartbreaking but honest books about teens immersed in emotionally distressed families, like Nancy Werlin's "The Rules of Survival" (Dial, 2006), this potent and creatively woven page-turner brings a traumatic situation front and center."Diane P. Tuccillo, Poudre River Public Library District, Fort Collins, CO" Copyright 2010 Media Source Inc.