Sex Education

Livvie and David are drawn to each other from the moment they meet, and their comfortable friendship quickly develops into romance. In the course of an unusual school assignment, the two teenagers become entangled in the life of Maggie, a deeply unhappy woman. A confrontation with Maggie's violent husband leads to David's death, and Livvie is faced with a future that seems bleak and hopeless. The gravity and candor with which Davis approaches life's serious issues will come as no surprise to fans of her first novel, Goodbye and Keep Cold . Livvie and David are fully developed characters and their changing relationship is depicted with great sensitivity. In contrast, both Maggie and her fragmented plight seem grafted on in order to provide the novel's tragic finish. This flaw would be easy to ignore if the author hadn't given readers of her first work such very high expectations. A Richard Jackson Book. Ages 12-up. (September)