Jailbait

Children's Literature

Andi lives a life of quiet isolation in suburban Long Island in a more innocent era, before the Internet and widespread tales of child abduction. Slightly overweight, Andi has no friends and walks back and forth to school to avoid the bullying behavior of her classmates on the bus. When Frank, a man possibly in his thirties, drives by and eventually befriends Andi, she is sure this is true love. While it is clear to the reader that Frank is taking horrible advantage of Andi, Newman is able to convey through Andi's voice that this is the best thing that has ever happened to her. Her dreams of romance are now colored by her times with Frank and when Frank does not react as Andi would like, she adjusts her thinking and her needs to meet his abusive personality. Frank eventually moves on, abandoning Andi without a word. Andi's brother is the only one she can talk to, and even though he is a "loser" in the eyes of their parents, Mike is able to help Andi learn and grow, leaving her a stronger person at the end of the book. Avoiding an unrealistic ending where all is well, Newman manages to show Andi as a girl who is still friendless, but one who knows herself much better at seventeen than she did at fifteen. 2005, Delacorte Press, Ages 14 up.
—Wendy M. Smith-D'Arezzo

KLIATT

Andi may be one of the loneliest 15-year-olds in suburban New Jersey. She calls her parents by their first names or refers to them as "the units." Her only brother is seven years older and smoking dope and flunking out of college again. Andi has no friends. She is so starved for companionship that she befriends Bessie, a broken-down cow who lives in a field next to her walk home. Andi walks home because she refuses to take the bus where other kids will tease and humiliate her. She has never had a boyfriend and she worries about her weight, while her breasts have grown too large to be ignored. She is ripe for someone like Frank, an older man who drives past Bessie's field every day at the same time, and then one day stops the car and invites Andi into part of his world, the part where they tryst in an abandoned house and he exploits her for sex. Frank is clearly a loser creep, but Andi convinces herself that she is in love until he brutally dumps her. This novel is certainly a cautionary tale for misfit girls with low self-esteem and imperfect bodies. However, the writing is evocative enough that Andi and her woes become compelling and her painful rise from the ashes at the end is to be cheered. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2005, Random House, Delacorte, 239p., Ages 12 to 18.
—Myrna Marler

School Library Journal

Gr 9-11-Andi is an average student in 1971 suburban Long Island, doesn't have many friends, doesn't open up to anyone, and blends in. When a car drives by and toots at her several days in succession, the 15-year-old begins to create a romantic scenario in her head about the driver. Soon afterward, he stops and says, "Get in, gorgeous." What ensues is a daily meeting after school, when Frank takes Andi to an abandoned house and compliments her, makes her feel pretty, and shares physical intimacy without sex. Andi is ecstatic. However, Frank, moody, unpredictable, and quite a bit older than she, explains that if they're seen in public he will go to jail. On her 16th birthday, they have sex, and she is disappointed. Furious, he tells her that if she ends the relationship, he will paste the intimate photos he took of her around school. They reconcile and make plans to run away, but he never shows up. Andi is hurt-but only for a while. She's grown up a bit since meeting Frank and has started to stand up for herself. Now, too, her brother has returned from college and convinces her of her self-worth. Through Andi, readers see just why some girls take up with the wrong men and do most anything to keep them. While Frank remains a mystery, Andi's family is well developed. The story will keep teen girls listening as the tale unfolds, whether they've loved and lost or not.-Karen Hoth, Marathon Middle/High School, FL Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Fifteen-going-on-sixteen, Andi is bored, lonely and cynical in 1970s suburbia. Her sole friend moved away, and her brother, Mike, is busy getting stoned at college, leaving Andi alone with her parents, Shirley and Fred. Shirley is emotionally detached from her husband and children, while Fred forces small fatherly overtures that feel insincere. Eventually, Andi relates a family secret that accounts for their dysfunction. When a chance encounter with much-older Frank develops into a sexual relationship, Andi takes refuge in the illicit affair, possibly because it offers an escape from her tedious and unsatisfactory home life. Frank's mercurial moods run hot and cold, unsettling Andi, but making her crave his approval. The story wraps up a bit too neatly when, after a heart-to-heart with Mike, Andi avoids making a life-altering mistake. Despite the abrupt ending, teens will appreciate the plot that builds satisfactorily to a climax while exposing the underbelly of life in the suburbs. Unfortunately, however, the characters are unremarkable and the 1970s setting adds nothing but outdated slang to the story. (Fiction. YA)