Love Against The Odds

Stay With Me, a well-crafted novel by Paul Griffin, poses the following question: How can love survive a long separation? Cece and Mack are both fifteen years old, and meet at a neighborhood restaurant where they both work. Cece is a diligent, hard-working student who dreams of going to college, and Mack is a high school dropout with a terrible temper. However, his expertise in the training of pit bulls seems to offer him a chance at a better life. The teens soon fall deeply in love. Then, Mack commits a violent crime which will surely result in a long prison sentence, leaving the couple to painfully come to terms with the fact that the course of their romance has been irrevocably changed. This is a beautiful and haunting love story with a cast of engaging characters. 

A Long Road Home

 

What are the things that make you feel safe? Home? Family? Friends? In Safekeeping, a powerful novel by Karen Hesse, seventeen year-old Radley's concept of safety is shattered when she returns to her hometown of Brattleboro, Vermont after a brief stint of volunteer work at an orphanage in Haiti. She finds that the United States is in chaos. The American People's Party, an extremist group, has taken over the country, the president has been assassinated, riots and looting are prevalent, and Radley's parents have disappeared. Unsure of what she should do, yet knowing she is unsafe, Radley embarks on a long and perilous journey on foot from Vermont to Canada, where she hopes she will find refuge until the situation in the United States is resolved. The narrative is complemented and enhanced by the author's superb black and white photos. This is a deeply moving and unforgettable work which all readers should experience.