LOVE, SARA

Fifteen-year-old Sara has already experienced extreme trauma in her life. A victim of incest, she has moved through several foster families, all of whom sent her back to “Elmwood,” a state home for teens. Now Sara lives with Carol, a single woman with two younger children who appears to truly want her as a daughter. Even better, Sara has found her first friend, Dulcie. Sara finally begins to do well in school, especially in her creative writing class, and enjoys her nightly e-mail conversations with Dulcie. She disapproves when Dulcie falls in love with Jon, a handsome boy from a wealthy family. Once Sara realizes that Jon really loves Dulcie, she becomes entangled in their disastrous affair. She crashes Carol’s car and approaches suicide, until Carol intervenes. Lundgren writes with a convincing adolescent voice and finds themes that attract teenage girls, themes like romance, school, friendship, parental tension, and death. Told in e-mails, journal entries, and Sara’s creative writing assignments, this debut makes an impact with its realism and insight into adolescent hopes and dreams. It offers hope after tragedy in its portrait of a cynical girl moving toward a responsible and happier adulthood. Lundgren has indeed made a promising start. (Fiction. YA)