It's Yr Life

Gr 9 Up—This story opens with a classroom assignment: "Build an email relationship with a student from our sister school." Milla is the angry, 15-year-old daughter of a wealthy and prominent producer in L.A. She is upfront about her resentment toward her father but takes the advantages his money gives her for granted. Her assigned partner is idealistic Sim, also 15, who lives in a foster home in Australia. He likes his current foster parents and has willingly adopted their "freegan" ("we don't buy things") lifestyle, best exemplified by daily "Dumpster dives" for food. Naturally, their very different lifestyles result in a series of combative exchanges in the beginning, but the relationship begins to evolve as both teens find themselves in the middle of difficult and frightening circumstances. Sim, who is no stranger to abuse, tries desperately to encourage Milla to seek help when her father's violent behavior escalates. Likewise, when he finds severed fingers in a Dumpster and is encouraged by his foster mother to just forget about them, Milla tries to talk him into informing the police. Both soon discover that doing the right thing does not necessarily make things better, and can even make them worse for a while, but that's when having each other's support really counts. The entire story is related through email exchanges, with different font styles aiding in differentiating between the characters. There are occasional photos and articles "attached," widely spaced type, texting-style abbreviations, and enough swear words to give reluctant teen readers a buy-in to this involving story. However, Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin's P.S. Longer Letter Later (Scholastic, 1998) and Michael J. Rosen's ChaseR (Candlewick, 2002) use the email format to much better literary effect.—Cary Frostick, Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA