Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Book from All Angles
Review: The first thing you realize when reading this book is that Jeff has problems. These problems to us seem stupid. Things like paranoia over being watched in the bathroom. Not only that but its founded paranioia. Not just something stupid he thinks might happen but did. EVery parent's worst nightmare. Their child dissapears. Then amazingly he comes back. But it isn't the same boy that was lost two and a half years ago. Its a diffrent child with severe issues, adn many times people make the mistake of forgetting that. One of the scariest sceans in this was when Jeff was explaining the slap game to his younger brother. The way that the author captures teh hopelss ness of the feeling's Jeff has is powerful. I would recomend this book to anyone. Just about any one. Less you really hate homosexuality in anything. Becasue there is a few mentions of it.
Rating: 
Summary: disturbing
Review: This book is REALLY good. If I were a teacher I would have my class read this book. I can't imagine going through something like Jeff, the main character, did. Not only did Jeff have to live with what happened, but he also had to endure the criticism of his peers after it was all over. I don't think that I would be able to live with myself after an experience like that. I can completely understand the reason for his apprehensiveness towards touch. Ray, the guy that had originally kidnapped Jeff, is unimaginably horrible. You will have no idea, until you read this book. But the plot through this book is not only interesting and nerve wracking, but it's also a complete twist at the end that I never would have expected.
Rating:
Summary: When Jeff Comes Home- A Good Book I Just Read
Review: This book was very good. I just finished reading it 2 days ago. Jeff, the main character, is kidnapped. Early in the story, his kidnapper returns him to his house 2 ½ years after he was kidnapped. During the course of this book, the police try to find out the whole truth. Everyone is worried about Jeff. Will he go back to school? This book is very exciting and I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend it to anyone ages 12-17.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing book
Review: This was an amazing portayal of a young man's struggle to adjust to his old life back home after a terrible ordeal. Jeff, kidnapped at age 13 by a man only known as Ray, Jeff is returned home at age 15 and tries to put the pieces, of his shattered life back together. This was a very powerful book dealing with some very hard topics. I feel Ms. Atkins did an amazing job on this book!
Rating:
Summary: Sensitive Portrayal
Review: Through Jeff's eyes, Catherine Atkins shows how victims often feel guilt,shame and somehow responsible for their situation. Anger, low self-esteem, depression, and fear...all these feelings are tangled up inside of him, when Jeff comes home. He thinks he's expected to act normal, but how can he, with what he's been through? Pretend you're human, he tells himself. Before I read this book, I empathized with abuse victims, but never really understood how deeply the assault affects a victims' psyche. Atkins skillfully puts the reader in the victim's shoes. I felt Jeff's emotional scars and pain so vividly, I had a lump in my throat while I read. When Jeff Comes Home is a sensitive portrayal of a young victim of sexual abuse, a book well worth reading and discussing.
Rating:
Summary: What are family and friends for anyway?
Review: What an achievement this novel is! Not only has Catherine Atkins brought to life an engaging yet enigmatic adolescent named Jeff, but has also created a "ring true" set of characters around him whose lives he affects in deep ways. Abducted and sexually abused for two and a half miserable years, Jeff is finally able to return home. What are his chances of leading a "normal" family and school life after what he has been through? In search of that answer, Ms. Atkins takes us places we would rather not be, but we go anyway. We cannot help but root for Jeff and his family. We want their pain to end. We want justice to prevail. Most of all, we want this terrible chapter in all their lives to close. This novel is astonishing. It goes to the heart of family life, and tells us that there is as much fear, guilt and sorrow in it as there is joy, fellowship, and forgiveness. Bravo to Ms. Atkins. You are a fine writer, and Jeff is a fine book!
Rating:
Summary: from a reader in Fairbanks, AK
Review: WHEN JEFF COMES HOME is the book I wish I could have written. Ms. Atkins brings Jeff, his fear, confusion, his heartbreak and finally his courage to stunning realization in this first person POV. Jeff, kidnapped at thirteen, then released and returned to his family at sixteen doesn't know who he is anymore. Recent criticisms of the book focusing on why the kidnapper releases him have missed the subtleties of the book. Jeff is too old to be of sexual interest to Ray, his kidnapper, but retaining control and continuing to torture him in another way is the second act of Ray's vicious drama. And Jeff doesn't know who to protect. Ray, who did release him, his family, or himself. The art of this book is in what isn't said. The writer trusts the reader to see through Jeff's mental confusion. The reader desperately wants Jeff to recognize his path to recovery. Easily the best YA I've read this year.
Rating:
Summary: A story that needed to be told
Review: When Jeff Comes Home must have been a challenging book to write. It is an equally challenging one to read. Catherine Atkins is a courageous author, who writes about something most people would prefer not to consider: What happens to abducted children, and what are the emotional scars left on those who are abused? In writing Jeff's story, she manages to craft a page-turner that challenges, then reworks, our ideas of happy endings. All the characters are realistic, and Jeff's relationships with his father, his sister, and his best friend (especially) are compelling. This IS the new young-adult, a book that will keep teens thinking and discussing. A must read.
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