FIREGIRL

Unremarkable Tom Bender's predictable year at Saint Catherine's is shaken up when Jessica Feeny arrives. She is temporarily enrolled while she's being treated at a local burn hospital. Sean Kenin employs a believable seventh-grade-boy's voice as Tom navigates a lopsided, needy friendship with his only friend, Jeff Hicks, and imagines ways to attract the attention of the lovely Courtney Zisky. Kenin gives Tom the fast-paced, self-absorbed voice typical of the young adolescent. We hear him wrestle between the aversion he feels toward the hideously disfigured Jessica and the compassion he feels for a fellow outcast. As he comes out of his shell, he tentatively reaches out in friendship and finds a courage he didn't know he possessed. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]