Saving Baby Doe

Thirteen-year-old Lionel Perez and his friend Anisa Torres stumble across a newborn baby. Despite his mother's efforts to tie up his time with piano lessons, Lionel gets mixed up with a drug dealer in the hopes of earning enough money to take care of the baby himself. Vigilante's finely tuned depiction of Lionel's Red Hook, Brooklyn, neighborhood is believable and engaging.

A prologue has a young woman giving birth all alone, so readers will be anticipating the events of the first chapter, in which thirteen-year-old Lionel Perez and his friend Anisa Torres explore a construction site and stumble across a newborn baby. At the hospital, everyone assumes the baby is theirs; Lionel is so mortified and enraged that he punches a wall in frustration. He's even more aghast when his mother sits him down for a sex talk, demonstrating a condom with a banana, explaining how young she was when he was born. She ties up Lionel's time by making him take piano lessons with an elderly neighbor in their Red Hook, Brooklyn, project. Even so, he gets mixed up with a drug dealer in the hopes of earning enough money to be able to "kidnap" the baby, with whom he feels a connection, and take care of her. A lot happens in a very short time period, but Vigilante's finely tuned depiction of Lionel's neighborhood and of his jumbled feelings, which sometimes leads to his making poor choices, is both believable and engaging. With a surprise twist in the middle and a light hand with the drama, this is a great selection for middle school readers, who will empathize with Lionel throughout. susan dove lempke