Who's the Kid Around Here Anyway?

To the unaware, Maddie Winchurch has everything: friends, good grades and a shot at next year's editorship of the school newspaper. But few know about her crumbling home life--Mrs. Winchurch is becoming an alcoholic and Mr. Winchurch is contemplating divorce. Maddie, tired of playing the good daughter, rebels when her parents fail to appear at an awards banquet. She lets her schoolwork slide, drops clean-cut Isaac and begins dating the rakish O'Keefe, who soon has her drinking and smoking marijuana. In briskly moving prose, McAfee entwines truth with fiction, presenting potentially instructional situations. Readers will root for this spunky heroine as she stumbles through a realistically depicted family crisis. Events surrounding Isaac, however, appear flawed--he dupes Maddie into thinking his parents are wealthy and avoids her for months after she finally reveals the difficulties she's having; amazingly, he's forgiven. But the novel successfully imparts how important it is to seek help for problems, and how painful it is to shoulder them alone. Ages 12-up. (July)