Where People Like Us Live (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Where People Like Us Live Deborah Stevenson Cumbie, Patricia Where People Like Us Live Geringer/HarperCollins, 2008 [224p] Library ed. ISBN 978-0-06-137598-9 $17.89 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-137597-2 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7–10 When Libby’s peripatetic family lands in Racine, Wisconsin, Libby finds a friend in a fellow fourteen-year-old, Angie. Libby’s father is soon out of work at his new factory job as a result of a wildcat strike, Libby’s parents are fighting, and Libby increasingly finds refuge in Angie’s knowledgeable companionship. One day, however, Libby’s feeling that there’s something strange in Angie’s relationship with her stepfather, Kevin, is shockingly confirmed by the sexual abuse she sees through Angie’s window, and Libby knows that she has to help Angie even if it means destroying the friendship. There’s a vignettish flavor to this novel, since Libby’s family seems poised to continue on its troubled and nomadic ways while the encounter changes Angie’s life entirely; that and its unexplained period setting (it would seem to occur about twenty years ago) give it a slightly untethered and inconclusive feel, and Libby is less a character in her own right than simply a responder to the situation. The book is bracingly straightforward about Angie’s experience, though, even allowing her to justifiably miss her abuser (“He was the only grownup who acted as [End Page 421] if he cared about her future”) and painting her as a young girl who deserves better but not a tragic and wounded heroine. Though Woodson’s I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This (BCCB 3/94) is a superior story on this theme, many kids will recognize the strain of a friendship that involves an unkeepable secret, and they’ll relate to Libby’s quandary. Copyright © 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois