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False Face

Name: False Face
Author: Welwyn W. Katz
ISBN: 9780888990822

by Welwyn W. Katz

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Overview

Thirteen-year-old Laney is not happy caught between her divorced parents, but she’s learning to adjust. One day Laney bumps into her classmate Tom, who is of white and Iroquois descent. Walking in the nearby bog, they discover two terrifying false-face Indian masks. But even more horrible is what lies beneath them. As the mystery unfolds, Laney, troubled by the animosity between her parents, and Tom, desperate to return to his dead father’s Native American heritage, must come to grips with the power of the masks to both heal and harm. The friends find themselves in the midst of a harrowing ordeal that ultimately brings them face to face with love, hatred, and prejudice.

Thirteen-year-old Laney, troubled by the animosity between her divorced parents, and fourteen-year-old Tom, determined to preserve his Indian identity, form an uneasy alliance after finding rare Indian false face masks and realizing their terrifying power.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Laney, put-upon younger daughter, is the protagonist of this problem novel. Her parents' bitter divorce has left her confused and vulnerable. Her mother favors Laney's older sister; Laney's resemblance to her father seems to alienate her mother further. When Laney discovers a small Indian ritual mask and takes it home, it highlights the tensions between her mother, a successful antiques dealer, and her father, a professor determined to preserve Indian relics. Laney soon realizes that the mask and its larger companion mask harbor an evil power: it seems to be corrupting her mother. The strong resentments produced by the parents' soured love, divorce and Laney's own envy are presented carefully and convincingly. Katz welds the supernatural element onto the family's conflicts with grace and competence, offering a new view of a somber situation. Ages 10-14. (September)