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Review by Linda Harmon
Sixteen-year-old Maggie Cruz leaves Los
Angeles in her Volkswagen Beetle, which she calls The Bluebird. She
is headed for her grandfather's house in the little town of Twisted
Creek. The town is several hours north of Los Angeles and in the
mountains. The problem is that no one knows she left town, not even
her mother.
It is April and Maggie is on spring
break. Her mother and stepfather are away on business. She left her
mother a note explaining everything and hopes that she will
understand.
Maggie is having trouble with the death
of her father three months before. It was bad enough when her
parents divorced and she saw her father on only weekends, but now he
is gone. Her mother and stepfather Jace travel a lot, and she gets
very lonely. She hates the condo that they bought in downtown Los
Angeles. She just doesn't feel like she is a part of a family
anymore. She is hoping to recapture that feeling at her
grandfather's house.
A few hours into the trip Maggie
notices that Bluebird is low on gas. She is afraid that she will run
out before she finds a station. Not many businesses are in that part
of the countryside, but she finally comes to a small station. The
station attendant is very curious about a young girl traveling alone
and asks where she is headed. When she tells him that she is going
to Twisted Creek, he tells her that it is nowhere for a young person
like her to be going. The man's comment bothers her, and for the
first time she wonders if she is doing the wrong thing by going to
her grandfather's.
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this review]
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 Maggie's grandfather is surprised and
glad to see her but insists that she give her mother a call. It is
at this point that she finds out the bank owns the only two phones
in town. She asks her grandfather to talk to her mother about her
staying in Twisted Creek. Her mother's work is going to keep her
from home longer than she anticipated, so she agrees to let Maggie
finish the school year in Twisted Creek.
The high school is not at all what
Maggie expects. A headmaster named Mr. Wagner runs the school, and
he is very stern. There are only six other students in her junior
class, no cafeteria, no soda or vending machines, no coed sports,
and the Bremmers run the school too.
She becomes friends with the teens in
her class and finds out that they are not happy with the lack of
modernization in Twisted Creek. In fact, they are organizing an
effort to confront the Bremmers and ask for changes. Maggie resists
this at first because she fears that Twisted Creek will loose its
simplicity and become what she left behind, but an accident
involving the sister of a friend changes her mind.
An interesting subplot is Maggie's
relationship with the elderly sisters of Mr. Bremmer. She learns
that you can't judge people by their looks or the family they come
from. This relationship helps Maggie to face things about herself
and her expectations of others.
This is a sweet story and will appeal
to teens. Some of the themes addressed in the story are dealing with
divorce, the death of a parent, teenage peer groups, relationships
with grandparents and
change.
For more
information about this and other books, visit the library at 725 Pekin St. or call (217) 732-8878.
[Linda Harmon,
Lincoln
Public Library District]
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