CAUGHT BETWEEN THE PAGES

Sullen P.J. lives a pretty lonely life. He feels like a third wheel with his closest friends, his biological father ignores him and his mom and step-dad can’t even seem to remember whether he plays for the football or soccer team at school. His teacher, Mrs. Jordan, pays attention to him, but since it is in the form of homework make-up sessions, he wishes that she wouldn’t. When he inadvertently winds up with her private journal, he is astonished to learn her real opinions about both him and his classmates. Then his mother is in a bad car accident and P.J. finds himself having to make a lot of uncomfortable decisions about who he really wants to be. This ruminative story of a teenage boy’s struggle to feel worthwhile never really seems to get off the ground, and its heavily moralistic tone weighs it down even further. The plot also seems overly complicated for what is essentially a novel of introspection. The message here is not a bad one, but its obviousness kills the story. (Fiction. YA)