Someone Else's Life

Gr 8 Up—When Rosie Kenning's mother, Trudie, dies of Huntington's disease, the 17-year-old's world is turned upside down. She believes she has a 50 percent chance of inheriting the incurable illness. Then she learns from her mom's best friend that she was switched at birth with a dying baby. Not knowing what else to do, she travels from England to the United States with her boyfriend to try to find her biological mother. What starts out as a simple trip snowballs into a journey of discovery. Once Rosie learns that Trudie's biological daughter, Holly, is alive, she faces an agonizing decision. Should she tell the truth about their births in case Holly might have inherited the disease? Or are some secrets better off kept? Dale uses different font styles to indicate the voices of the two teens, slowly revealing that the second speaker is Holly. Emotions run high throughout the book and cause her to make a series of bad decisions, which can make her unlikable at times, but eventually she redeems herself. Dale constructs an intriguing story about how families come in many forms and that love can be found in unexpected places. This book is sure to resonate with teens, especially those who live in nontraditional homes.—Kimberly Castle-Alberts, Stark County District Library, Canton, OH