Rating: 
Summary: These Are The Facts
Review: "The Facts Speak for Themselves" was a pretty good book. I wouldn't recommend it for younger kids who can't handle sex or violence though. I'd probably recommend it to teens 13-18. The story is told in Linda's point of view. It is different because the story actually starts out with the conclusion, and the rest of the story tells what lead up to what is in the beginning (that sounds confusing, but once you read it, you will understand). Linda is a thirteen year old girl who was witness to the murder of her lover, who is twice her age. The killer, was actually her mother's boyfriend who was living with them. Linda tells the events in her life from the time she was little up until the murder, consisting of a very dysfunctional family life and a lot of moving around. The book was good all-in-all, but not really for children.
Rating:
Summary: These Are The Facts
Review: "The Facts Speak for Themselves" was a pretty good book. I wouldn't recommend it for younger kids who can't handle sex or violence though. I'd probably recommend it to teens 13-18. The story is told in Linda's point of view. It is different because the story actually starts out with the conclusion, and the rest of the story tells what lead up to what is in the beginning (that sounds confusing, but once you read it, you will understand). Linda is a thirteen year old girl who was witness to the murder of her lover, who is twice her age. The killer, was actually her mother's boyfriend who was living with them. Linda tells the events in her life from the time she was little up until the murder, consisting of a very dysfunctional family life and a lot of moving around. The book was good all-in-all, but not really for children.
Rating: 
Summary: painfully real bibliotherapy
Review: : This book is extremely well written and affecting. Since this book contains a realistic portrayal of sexual and emotional abuse, The Facts Speak For Themselves would be an excellent choice for bibliotherapy. I would recommend that a teenager have someone trusted to talk over the subject matter of this book. In fact, this book could be so upsetting that a person who reads this book might need a professional counselor. Evaluation: The Facts Speak For Themselves by Brock Cole contains a sad and powerful story. Cole writes in a beautiful and simple style that gives us access to Linda???s inner thoughts. The protagonist in this book, Linda, is a victim of years of psychological, sexual and emotional abuse. This abuse is so normal for Linda that she does not recognize it as abuse. As she describes her situation Linda writes in a flat tone about taking care of her little brothers, being molested and watching the murder of her adult lover. It is heartbreaking to see adult after adult either abuse Linda or not offer her any help. Although this is a sad book, in the end Linda is removed from her situation and in a group home. Linda seems relatively happy in the home and she is grateful for the small things like having access to pencils. This ending puts a happy ending on the book that otherwise could make a reader lose all hope.
Rating:
Summary: painfully real bibliotherapy
Review: : This book is extremely well written and affecting. Since this book contains a realistic portrayal of sexual and emotional abuse, The Facts Speak For Themselves would be an excellent choice for bibliotherapy. I would recommend that a teenager have someone trusted to talk over the subject matter of this book. In fact, this book could be so upsetting that a person who reads this book might need a professional counselor. Evaluation: The Facts Speak For Themselves by Brock Cole contains a sad and powerful story. Cole writes in a beautiful and simple style that gives us access to Linda's inner thoughts. The protagonist in this book, Linda, is a victim of years of psychological, sexual and emotional abuse. This abuse is so normal for Linda that she does not recognize it as abuse. As she describes her situation Linda writes in a flat tone about taking care of her little brothers, being molested and watching the murder of her adult lover. It is heartbreaking to see adult after adult either abuse Linda or not offer her any help. Although this is a sad book, in the end Linda is removed from her situation and in a group home. Linda seems relatively happy in the home and she is grateful for the small things like having access to pencils. This ending puts a happy ending on the book that otherwise could make a reader lose all hope.
Rating:
Summary: A story of a 13 year old living through a nightmare.
Review: A strong, yet disturbing story of a 13 year old girl who experiences events in her young life which no one would wish a child, or adult, to experi- ence. She loses her chance of childhood while living with a dysfunctional mother, who, in turn, draws dysfunctional people into her own life and therefore Linda's. Unlike "The Goats", which was a story of innocent love, Mr.Cole makes his main character a victim of sexual abuse. She is not aware of the harm that this is doing to her now or in the future, nor do I feel the author injects anything into the story to help her under- stand that she is a victim. I feel that a stronger statement regarding the abuse should have been made by the author. I am concerned that a young person reading this book would not fully comprehend the psychological damage that has been done to Linda
Rating:
Summary: The facts DO speak for themselves.
Review: At the beginning of this story, thirteen-year-old Linda is brought to the police station after witnessing a murder-suicide. The gunman was her mother's boyfriend. The victim was her mother's employer, and Linda's lover. At the prompting of her social worker she tells her life story, beginning from when she was very small. And she's had a pretty nasty life. Linda and her situation remind me rather of Leshaya in Han Nolan's "Born Blue". Both of their fathers are gone. Both of them are regularly abandoned by their mothers and left pretty much to take care of their own. Her story is starkly told. She's slightly dull-witted and doesn't always understand what's going on around her, but the reader can read between the lines. Her mother is unstable, promiscuous, and unable to take care of her children. Linda is a mother figure to her two younger brothers, and always has been. She's very strong and self-reliant and can take care of herself and others on her own for long periods. She talks in a flat tone about being molested by so many of her mother's boyfriends....
Rating:
Summary: In the tradition of Vonnegut...
Review: Brilliant Writing...The publishers really limit themselves by calling this YA...This is a fine adult novel that features a young Protaganist. Think Mary Carr's The Liar's Club
Rating:
Summary: Subversively Direct, Gutsy
Review: Cole's book is very gutsy in today's Pedophile Witch Hunt. I'm glad that someone is willing to stand up against the madness that rips our society apart in hatred by illustrating how a sexual relationship involving someone under the age of 18 is not automatically sexual abuse or rape. It is unfortunate that it is natural that not all readers will understand this book, as it directly subverts contemporary opinion on this subject. Linda withstands the brainwashing the social worker attempts with strength and displays maturity rarely seen in most adults. _The Facts Speak for Themselves_ provides a human, lifelike interpretation of the effects of the gothic story discussed in James Kincaid's book, _Erotic Innocence: The Culture of Child Molesting_ (ISBN: 0-8223-2177-7). I highly recommend this book, but only to those who are willing to question the tired formula of (someone under 18) + (sexual activity) = rape.
Rating: 
Summary: Detached, dispassionate and gritty
Review: Cole's protagonist Linda has endured more than most children will ever have to face. She tells her tale nonchalantly, the horrible and perverse things of her childhood set in stark contrast against her narrative style. Growing up in a severely dyfunctional home, her innocence stripped from her at a young age, Linda conveys a sense of calmness and even seeming normalcy with the events of her life, as if they are merely "rites of passage." An interesting twist comes in as she is not completely blameless in her relationship with Jack, leaving no convenient black and white, wrong or right categories for the reader to place characters in. One possible nutshell: Morally bankrupt parents produce morally bankrupt children. Definitely not for younger children.
Rating:
Summary: Detached, dispassionate and gritty
Review: Cole's protagonist Linda has endured more than most children will ever have to face. She tells her tale nonchalantly, the horrible and perverse things of her childhood set in stark contrast against her narrative style. Growing up in a severely dyfunctional home, her innocence stripped from her at a young age, Linda conveys a sense of calmness and even seeming normalcy with the events of her life, as if they are merely "rites of passage." An interesting twist comes in as she is not completely blameless in her relationship with Jack, leaving no convenient black and white, wrong or right categories for the reader to place characters in. One possible nutshell: Morally bankrupt parents produce morally bankrupt children. Definitely not for younger children.
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