Babyface
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
When Toni's luck runs out, real life comes calling
Toni and Julie were both born right after their parents moved in next to one another, and the two girls have hardly been separated since. Julie is tall and outspoken and stands up for herself, but really she's just trying to survive until she turns eighteen so she can move out before her parents' constant fighting drives her crazy. Meanwhile, Toni, small and shy, has the perfect family: no financial worries and two parents who obviously adore her. Compared to Julie, Toni knows she's lucky.
But when Julie's mom moves her family to San Francisco for the summer, Toni faces new challenges. Some changes are fun, like getting to know the cutest boy in school—but some, like discovering that maybe your family isn't as perfect as you thought, aren't quite so easy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Toni Chessmore has always felt lucky; she could not have asked for more perfect parents or for a better friend than Julie Jensen, her next-door neighbor. But during her 14th summer, Toni's opinion of herself and others begins to change after her father's near-fatal heart attack. Toni is sent to stay with her older sister in New York, where she learns shocking secrets about her parents' past and recognizes that they have been living a lie that began before she was born. Feeling hurt and deceived, Toni has trouble dealing with her parents after returning home. To make matters worse, an argument with Julie results in the girls' not speaking. Only when Toni deals openly and honestly with her resentments can she start to accept and forgive. Although she seems a bit two-dimensional at the onset of the novel, Toni's inner growth and increasing awareness--as well as her disillusionment--are realistically portrayed. Mazer ( After the Rain ; Silver ) offers a thorough, sensitive exploration of parent/teen relationships as she reveals how a sheltered girl discovers that the people she loves are neither perfect nor infallible. Ages 12-up.
