I Never Asked You to - Hardcover

DeClements, Barthe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670807680 ISBN 13: 9780670807680

Publisher: Viking Juvenile, 1986

Synopsis

Two teenage girls attending an alternative high school for problem students find that their disintegrating family lives have pushed them to the edge.

About this title

About the Author:

Barthe Declements is an author of children's and young adult books. Some of her published credits include Fourth Grade Wizards, Double Trouble, I Never Asked You to Understand Me, and Bite of the Gold Bug: A Story of the Alaskan Gold Rush (Once Upon America).

From School Library Journal:

Grade 8-12 Didi is sent to Cooperation High, an alternative school, because she is having troubles dealing with her mother's impending death from cancer. Life at "the Coop" includes various oddball charactersex-con Larry, strung-out TJ and Stacy, who quickly becomes Didi's friend. Discerning readers will realize early on that Stacy's problems stem from her father's sexual abuse. This is as much Stacy's story as Didi's, and readers learn very little about Didi, despite the fact that the story is told from her point of view. They do not have the chance to see her work her way through her mother's death. Moreover, most of Didi's relationshipswith her father (shadowy at best), with TJ, with the priggish housekeeper Monicaare left hanging and never develop. In a few instances, however, DeClements captures minor characters wellher portrayal of a counselor at the "normal" high school is stingingly accurate. There are numerous references to drug and alcohol use, as well as some mild sexual encounters, the combination of which tends to overshadow an already weak plot. Written in a biting vernacular, the language is occasionally crude, and while DeClements offers a brilliant slice-of-life setting, the story goes nowhere. A better choice for dealing with parental death is Roni Schotter's A Matter of Time (Ace, 1981). Kathleen Brachmann, Highland Park Public Library, Ill.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Juvenile
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0670807680
• ISBN 13: 9780670807680
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 138