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CM . . .
. Volume XIX Number 7. . . .October 19, 2012
excerpt:
Coming Clean is a quick paced story, compelling and real. One of the most noteworthy aspects of this book is that it's about making choices, and that, even if you've made a bad choice to start, you can change course and make good ones instead. Positive change comes from believing in one's self and not necessarily listening to what others say about you - definitely tough stuff for teenagers. Readers are introduced to the main character, Rob, younger brother of Adam who has just hooked him up to a plum gig – to DJ for three hours on Friday night at the local all ages club in town beginning at 9:00 p.m. But Rob is skeptical of his brother as he is "far too often full of it."
Just at the end of the set, the power goes off and stays off. On their way out of the club, Rob, Adam and Matt find Mary Jane, 15, below the booth on the floor, unmoving. Mary Jane, who is a girl Rob had once thought about asking out, is in the same grade and in some of the same school classes as he is.
Adam's first solution was to run away. But, he came back to see if he could find some evidence at the club that would clear his name. Sly has been too clever for that. Adam then tried confronting Sly, hoping that he would admit to his part, but it didn't work.
Teenagers spend much of their time just surviving the morphing process into adulthood. No longer children, they are expected to make decisions, sometimes with incomplete information. Books like Coming Clean address topics, such as drug abuse, that parents are often loath to approach. Here, in the safety of a fictional world, readers can explore for themselves the circumstances that can bring a person down. In Coming Clean, readers learn about the power of choice. Highly Recommended. B. MacDougall is a Junior/Senior School Librarian in the Canadian Foot Hills.
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