Waiting for Christopher

by Louise Hawes

Overview

• New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age
• Girls' Life Magazine, Ten Best Summer Reads
• Featured in Teen Discussion Groups @ the Library

".flowing prose and vivid characterization.Hawes deliverers a rewarding read."
-Publishers Weekly

".behind the kidnapping drama, Hawes' eloquent words reveal complex truths of family love and sorrow."
-Booklist

"Hawes is excellent on the day-to-day difficulties of caring for a toddler, especially in secret."
-Washington Post

"Hawes deals poignantly with loss and longing in a novel that is full of disappointment and heartbreak but that in the end offers hope."
-The Horn Book

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595390823
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/12/2006
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

Editorial Reviews

Hawes (Rosey in the Present Tense) opens this affecting and honest novel with the loss of a baby brother, Christy, to SIDS, described from the point of view of a four-year-old girl. Feena, now 14, has recently moved from Connecticut to Florida with her divorced mother, a soap opera addict. The lonely, bookish Feena repeatedly witnesses the abuse of a toddler, also named Christopher, in the amusement park adjacent to her home. When the mother seemingly abandons the child, Feena takes him and secretly cares for him. As implausible as this story line may be, Hawes tells it with heart. Feena is a painfully believable character, as is her surprising new friend and co-conspirator, Raylene. Hawes's flowing prose and vivid characterization of the popular and seemingly unapproachable Raylene (she moves like an "African goddess" and "[speaks] sparingly in class, but with a tongue of fire in the halls") carry the novel to its complicated end. When Feena returns Christopher to his mother, it is only after confronting her own capacity for violence. Skillfully interweaving Raylene's story, Feena's past and present experiences, and their literary heroines, Hawes delivers a rewarding read. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 7-9-Feena Harvey's life changes dramatically when her baby brother, Christy, falls victim to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Not only does the 14-year-old grieve for the baby, but also for additional losses in her life: her father leaves the family, she and her mother move to Florida, and her mother retreats into alcohol and soap operas. One day the girl watches a toddler being abused both physically and verbally. When his mother follows through on a threat to abandon him, Feena rushes in and comforts him, taking him with her. Is she a rescuer or a kidnapper? With the help of a girl from school, she hides him in an abandoned structure and the teens alternate skipping school to care for Christy for nearly three weeks. Finally she goes to the trailer court where Christy's mother, Delores, resides and learns of the cycle of abuse that is her life. Feena realizes, however, that the child loves his mother, and makes a disturbing agreement with her: she'll return him and not report anything to the social-service authorities, as long as Delores doesn't go to the police. When Feena returns to the trailer park to visit, she discovers that Delores and Christy have left. This novel deals poignantly with grief, loss, and the healing process. Feena's solitude and loneliness are nearly palpable; her impulsive act understandable. Hawes's writing is distinctive, with many wonderful turns of phrase and beautiful images. Her main characters are memorable and well developed, which helps avoid the novel's falling into the melodramatic that it hovers over precariously. Readers will feel empathy for Feena and for Christy. Perhaps that's why one must worry about his future.-Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

The author bases this latest on a premise so unlikely it is almost laughable, yet the characters involved are worth caring about. When Feena was four, her beloved baby brother Christopher died of SIDS. Now ten years later, Feena's father is gone and her mother has moved the two of them to Florida for a fresh start. Things are pretty bleak: a hot, cramped house wedged between the highway and a rundown kiddie amusement park. There, Feena sees a mother hitting and insulting her toddler on several occasions. While the abuse is not horrific by current standards, the coldness and cruelty of this mother are clear. Feena is struck not only by the awful treatment of the toddler, but also by his name: Christopher, the same as her dead brother. The last straw comes when Feena witnesses the mother leaving Christopher in the parking lot and driving away. She rescues (kidnaps?) Christy and decides to hide him. Very soon it becomes clear that Feena is in over her head. She has no money, no place to hide him, and she's supposed to be in school. Added to the dubious nature of the plot, the most popular girl in school finds out about him and is immediately drawn to saving him, too. The girls succeed for a few weeks but the situation becomes too much for them, and Feena returns the little boy to his mother in spite of what they know. Feena plans to keep in touch with the mother in an effort to prevent future abuse, but when she returns for her first visit, Christy and his family are gone. The girls struggle with many issues around Christy's kidnapping and disappearance. They wonder if they are justified in breaking the law to save a child, and why the law hasn't protected him before. They wonder what kindof life he will have and where his mother has taken him. Both girls are complex characters, well drawn and sympathetic. What this lacks in realism, it makes up for in character development and "issue raising" and would be great for classroom discussion in a junior-high language arts class. (Fiction. 12-15)

Kirkus Reviews