ONCE WAS LOST

This National Book Award finalist tells a quiet, somber story. Sam is a teenager with adult responsibilities. Her charming dad, a pastor, has all the answers to everyone else's troubles, but his professional commitments leave Sam to care for her alcoholic mother. Author Sara Zarr’s observant delivery evokes Sam’s feelings of self-pity and her sense of injustice. When a younger girl from their church disappears, her worry, as well as media attention that focuses on her friends and her father as suspects, sends her into a tailspin. Zarr’s portrayal of Sam depicts how hard being a teen can be. The author gives an intimate and searching performance of a young person too soon thrust into an adult world. D.G. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2010]