Truth to Tell

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Alice, 14, is bewildered when her mother, Christine, suddenly decides to leave England for New Zealand, where she's been engaged, sight unseen, to help wealthy artist Miss Fairchild write a history of her family home. The house turns out to be a moldering estate with only the boozy gardener in attendance, so Christine is obliged to be the housekeeper and--when her elderly employer returns home ill from a painting trip to Burma--cook and nursemaid too. Alice is miserable, but her most pressing fears are allayed when her beloved but undependable stepfather, Len, finally joins them. A chance remark from Miss Fairchild, however, leaves Alice questioning the truth about her paternity. After running away, the girl ultimately makes her peace with Len but, disappointingly, not with her mother, who, despite her importance to the plot, remains a distant figure throughout. Bond's ( Another Shore ) story, although sparked with some insightful passages and flavorful dialogue, suffers from an obvious plot and, more fatally, relies on a tacked-on epilogue to tie up all the loose ends. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)

School Library Journal

Gr 6-9-Alice Jenkins, a shy 14-year-old, is wisked away from Cambridge, England, by her mother and relocated to New Zealand in 1958. Life was simple and happy for Alice, her mother Christine, and stepfather Len, so she is bewildered as to why they would leave so abruptly, especially before Len returns from his job away from home. Christine, a book editor, has been commissioned to help elderly Miss Fairchild write the history of Florestan Estate in Dunedin, New Zealand. Instead, she becomes the woman's nursemaid, and easy-going Len, when he finally arrives, becomes the caretaker. Alice's unhappiness mounts as her well-meaning but indifferent mother becomes preoccupied with crochety Miss Fairchild. Questions of her parentage arise (Len may really be her father), leading her to the final step of running away. The truth Alice is searching for unwinds slowly in this story with a text full of Briticisms. Alice's ``poor me'' attitude is justified to a point, but becomes tedious after 200 pages. The final chapters move along more swiftly, but the young woman's problem is not truly resolved until many years later. Bond is clearly a fine writer as demonstrated in her award-winning String in the Harp (1976) and Another Shore (1988, both McElderry); Truth to Tell is not as outstanding. It's more for readers who like a long, leisurely story that places more emphasis on characters than on action.-Judy R. Johnston, Auburn High School, WA

Ilene Cooper

It's 1958, and 14-year-old Alice is on her way to New Zealand with her mother, though, for the life of her, Alice can't figure out why. She knows that her mother has accepted a job helping an elderly woman write a book, but that doesn't explain why her mother couldn't have waited for Len, Alice's stepfather, to get himself home from his out-of-town job before leaving. For that matter, why does her mother need to change jobs at all? Bond's story is rich in detail, both physical and emotional, as she describes Alice's unhappy relocation, her worries about her mother and stepfather's reunion, and her efforts to get along with her mother's employer, a peculiar artist. It is this woman who suggests something shocking to Alice: Perhaps Len is not her stepfather after all, but her real father. There are some books that are very good, and you can't bear for them to end. This book is very good, too, but by the conclusion, when Alice runs away to the home of a couple whom readers have barely heard of in previous chapters, one wishes Bond would have ended the book at least 50 pages earlier. It's not that good readers won't stick with this; it's just that she dilutes her emotional ending by leaving her readers too tired to care as much as they should. She is very deft, though, when it comes to showing the heart of the teenage girl and how confusing life can be, especially when strange winds are blowing all around you.