Helpful Score: 7
(review for LibraryThing Early Reviewers)
Have You Found Her, a memoir, follows Janice Erlbaum as she volunteers at the teen shelter where she lived twenty years ago. That's where she meets Sam, a girl living at the shelter â" and though the shelter staff has warned her not to play favorites, she quickly becomes tangled up in Sam's life. She's determined to help the girl in whatever way she can... but there's a lot about Sam that she doesn't know.
I was in the middle of two novels when I received this book, but as soon as I started it the thought of picking up the other books I was reading didn't even cross my mind. It drew me in from the beginning. The attention to detail and frequent use of dialogue gave the story immediacy and made it feel like a novel. It also reminded me a bit of the book One Child by Torey Hayden, which is one of my favorites.
The author never took the easy way out while writing this book; nothing was painted in black and white. The good parts of Ms. Erlbaum's relationship with Sam were tainted by her suspicions that the relationship wasn't a healthy one, while the bad parts of the relationship were tempered by Ms. Erlbaum's deep love for the girl. This made the story complex and realistic.
Have You Found Her, a memoir, follows Janice Erlbaum as she volunteers at the teen shelter where she lived twenty years ago. That's where she meets Sam, a girl living at the shelter â" and though the shelter staff has warned her not to play favorites, she quickly becomes tangled up in Sam's life. She's determined to help the girl in whatever way she can... but there's a lot about Sam that she doesn't know.
I was in the middle of two novels when I received this book, but as soon as I started it the thought of picking up the other books I was reading didn't even cross my mind. It drew me in from the beginning. The attention to detail and frequent use of dialogue gave the story immediacy and made it feel like a novel. It also reminded me a bit of the book One Child by Torey Hayden, which is one of my favorites.
The author never took the easy way out while writing this book; nothing was painted in black and white. The good parts of Ms. Erlbaum's relationship with Sam were tainted by her suspicions that the relationship wasn't a healthy one, while the bad parts of the relationship were tempered by Ms. Erlbaum's deep love for the girl. This made the story complex and realistic.
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