FINDING GRACE

An engaging portrait of a recent high-school graduate as she embarks on her first job as a live-in “carer” for Grace, a brain-injured woman, and simultaneously begins college. Brugman brings to life a young woman who one minute can say, “I’m eighteen and know everything,” and the next is tripping over her feet and trying “a new blush avoidance tactic.” Told in the first person, the reader is privy to Rachel’s refreshingly smart and funny take on her trials and tribulations, her offbeat way of viewing the world. It is however her relationship with Grace, her growing empathy, that is at the heart of this Australian import. A mystery of sorts, Rachel tries to piece together clues from Grace’s former life and finds out a lot about herself along the way. Some of the plot elements, particularly the circumstances under which Grace becomes brain-damaged, are excessive. Yet young readers will connect with Rachel’s authentically adolescent voice, her journey toward “finding Grace.” A relatively new writer, Brugman is the real deal. (Fiction. 12-15)