Best Book for Young Adults —ALA

1997

Quick Picks for Reluctant YA Readers —ALA

1997

Books for the Teen Age — New York Public Library

1997

Publishers Weekly

"This sophisticated, disturbing story presents its characters with sympathy for their vulnerabilities."

Kirkus Reviews

"A searing novel —sometimes painful to read, impossible to put down."

Booklist

"A wrenching portrait of a family in crisis."

Publishers Weekly

"This sophisticated, disturbing story presents its characters with sympathy for their vulnerabilities."

Kirkus Reviews

"A searing novel —sometimes painful to read, impossible to put down."

Booklist

"A wrenching portrait of a family in crisis."

Metapsychology Online Review

"De Vries has successfully woven a tale of brutality, friendship, love, and epiphany that children as well as adults can absorb and learn from. … While it is written to the reading ability of late elementary to junior high, it has enough grit to hold the interest of adults, and teachers of elementary and junior high students ought to read it just so they recognize the Judiths and Michaels in their class. Mr. Beekman, the children's teacher, almost didn't."