My Book of Life by Angel

Gr 9 Up—While street prostitution doesn't fit into any young girl's ambition, vulnerabilities and circumstances move many of them into the "world's oldest profession" every day around the globe. Angel lives with her adorable younger brother and her widowed father in Vancouver, Canada, and has no plans to leave home until her compulsion to steal shoes from displays catches the eye of a pimp named Call. He offers to keep her crimes secret if she joins him for a meal, some "candy," and goes home with him. Angel is soon on the street, earning money through prostitution. The drug keeps Angel in line, but when she decides to wean herself off it, Call's intimidation methods became more sinister. Meanwhile, other street girls have been disappearing, and no one is concerned, not even the police. When Call brings home an 11-year-old girl he picks up from a group home, Angel realizes that she and the youngster needed to break away. As Angel faces this journey, she uses her imagination to write her book of life, as it should have been. Leavitt's novel (Farrar, Straus, 2012) ends on a positive note, with hope for a bright future. Ali Ahn has a sweet, age-appropriate voice for Angel's first person dialogue and effectively changes tones and dialects for other characters. No graphic details about prostitution or drug use are included in the story.—Ann Weber, Bellarmine College Prep., San Jose, CA