This is a good read

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal - June 12th, 2005

It's refreshing to find a young adult's novel with a heroine who doesn't just react to events, but instead does her best to use her energy and abilities to solve her problems. And the novel is a mystery, a popular genre with people of all ages, so there is an extra incentive to see how young Jennifer Bannon works out her problems.

Running Scared is by Brenda Chapman, who grew up in Terrace Bay and earned her first degree at Lakehead before becoming a teacher. She's drawn on her teaching experience, the raising of two daughters, and her own memory and imagination in creating a very believable character.

The central character, Jennifer Bannon, is just thirteen years old, which is young considering the responsibilities she has. While she tries to hang on to her hopes that her parents will reconcile and remarry, she has to babysit her younger sister while her mother works night shifts, and she's having difficulty adjusting to being in Grade Nine. Her bright spot at school is the time she spends with her volleyball teammates, because it's a bit of a break from worrying about her best friend, Ambie, who's started dating a fellow Jennifer thinks poorly of (and probably for good reason - being thirteen doesn't mean you are necessarily lacking in sense).

Then Jennifer learns that her father may be back in town, but she doesn't see him - just a customized car that looks very much like his, involved in a hit-and-run accident. She is afraid to report what she has seen, for her father's sake, but afraid, too, of the mysterious warnings she receives, telling her to keep quiet about what she witnessed.

It's a struggle, and a sharp reminder that everyone has worries, whether thirteen or thirty or whatever age at all, and it's up to Jennifer to work out her own problems, using her ingenuity, her talents, and her practical common sense.

This is a good read, and would probably interest boys as well as girls in the in-between age group of ten to fifteen or so; solving problems and working out mysteries appeals to all ages.

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© 2005 The Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal. All rights reserved.