A Place to Start

The tension in Grant Rothman's home has risen to nearly unbearable levels. His mother's new job consumes increasingly more of her time, and even Grant begins to wonder if his father's bitter accusations might be true. Is his mother having an affair with her boss? Grant is sustained by an unlikely but rewarding friendship with a classmate and by heart-to-heart talks with Mr. Howell, his computer teacher. Then he stumbles across irrefutable evidence that his mother is indeed seeing someonenot her boss, but Mr. Howell. The plot has a few rough edges: there are so many hints of Mrs. Rothman's liason with Mr. Howell that the truth, when finally revealed, carries little dramatic impact. And the ending has a hastily-resolved, facile quality. But the book is, on the whole, sensitive and well-written, with an effective message about the value of friendship and the importance of inner strength and self-reliance. Ages 12-up. (October)