Waiting to Disappear

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and inspiring
Review: An amazing book. I am anxiously awaiting Ms.Fritz's next book because this was excellent. The mix of character development, humor, complex and realistic thoughts and beautiful lines make this book a great read.

Rating:
Summary: A warm story of a family adjusting to emotional upset
Review: Buddy is looking forward to a wonderful summer before she begins high school, but family problems are keeping her from fun. Her older brother, killed two years earlier, still haunts her mother's memory and just before the big summer picnic, her mother suffers a breakdown and enters a rest place for those with emotional problems. Determined to get her mother back from 'that place', Buddy embarks on a campaign which will change her family's life in Waiting To Disappear, a warm story of a family adjusting to emotional upset.

Rating:
Summary: Great character development
Review: Every once in a while a book comes along that your have to take the time to recommend to other readers, and this is one of them. The book is set in 1960 in a small southern town, and isn't about social issues, but rather about a trumatic experience in a young girl's life as she is preparing to enter highschool. The above editorial review covers the reasons behind her mother's breakdown, so I wont recap them, but I want to comment on the characters in the story. Buddy - is a rare jewel of a person, who is very open and honest and wise beyond her years. She alternately combines sorrow, confusion and humor without overdoing any and is totally believeable in all aspects. I was captivated by her 22 year old Aunt Sherry, who held the family together in more ways than one. The rest of the family and friends rounded out the story, but Buddy, her mom, and Sherry were what made it one of the best reads I have had in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting for her next book!
Review: The characters in this book jumped off the page! Writer April Young Fritz knows and likes teens. Buddy's efforts to help her mother get over the death of her brother are realistic and sympathetic. Even with a serious topic, there is lots of humor in Buddy's escapades. Her friends are great fun, too! I am recommending this book to the teens in the library where I work, and I would buy it as a prize or for gifts. I am looking forward to the next book from this author.