Starting Over: (#7) (Nowhere High No. 7)

Starting Over: (#7) (Nowhere High No. 7)

Darcy finds out that she is adopted, and Alison must decide between her career and her first love, in the seventh episode featuring the kids at Nowhere High. Original. From School Library Journal Grade 7-10-- Darcy makes the crushing discovery during her spring vacation that she was adopted at birth by the Jenners, the town's wealthiest, albeit snobby, family. Her ensuing anger leads her on a successful quest for Maura, her biological mother. A gin-sipping, fun-loving gal, Maura is not interested in a family reunion with a young, attractive daughter whom she regards as a possible rival and reminder of her own aging. Throughout her search, Darcy is accompanied by friends from a variety of dysfunctional families who have formed a peer support group. YAs understand and applaud the intensity of peer friendships, but they deserve a portrayal in which characterization and dialogue are not sacrificed to platitudes and cliches. They may have a hard time sympathizing with Darcy, who bemoans her lot in life while driving a hunter green BMW from shopping spree to charity ball. Despite its good intentions, including a list of 800 numbers for national hotlines, the book is flat, contrived, and humorless. --Doris A. Fong, Benson Polytechnic High School, Portland, ORCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.