Getting Somewhere

Gr 8 Up—Jenna, Cassie, Sarah, and Lauren are in juvenile detention for various reasons. Offered a choice of traditional jail or an experimental program, the girls choose a 12-week farm program run by three women: Grace, the owner of the farm; Ellie, the psychologist; and Donna, the main cook. The farm provides most of the food they eat and produce to sell to the community. All of the girls have problems adjusting, but Lauren is the malcontent and troublemaker, unwilling to work and determined to destroy the program. Slowly the other girls start to accept what the women are trying to teach them, but Lauren sneaks out a letter that accuses them of sexual harassment and of being lesbians, although there is no evidence of their sexual orientation. What could have been an interesting character study of these girls and women is bogged down by cliché and almost glacial plotting and character development. By the time all of the characters are fleshed out, readers will no longer care. It is a shame because many of the descriptive passages are lyrical. Most teens will give up early in the novel so it will be a tough sell, even to those who might identify with one or more of the girls.—Suanne Roush, Osceola High School, Seminole, FL