Teen Books That Have Something to Say
Lucy Peale
Review
Lucy Peale
by Colby Rodowsky
Farrar, Straus and Giroux,(1992)
ISBN-10: 0374363811
My rating: 
After what seemed like hours her father spoke, his voice loud and piercing, as if he were filling all the reaches of the tent and not just that small hot room.
"Clothe your nakedness, Lucy Peale. Clothe your nakedness."
Lucy looked down, smoothing the crinkled cotton nightgown, then crossing her arms across her chest. "I am clothed, Pa. And, besides, I've got my underpants on underneath."
"Don't sass me," he said.
--Lucy Peale, Colby Rodowsky, pp. 8-9.
Lucy became pregnant through being raped. But that didn't matter to her evangelist father. When he found he became emotionally abusive—and demanded that she leave the house unless she confessed her sin to his congregation. So Lucy ran away—with hardly any money and no place to go.
Lucy's money ran out quickly, and she couldn't find a job. She had to resort to sleeping under the boardwalk and eating food people had thrown away. Then she met Jake. Jake was kind, sweet, and sensitive. At first she pushed him away, but when she was desperate she went to him. He took her into his home and heart—and together they made a family.
A sweet story, laced with pain but happiness and strength, too. Although Jake seems to good to be real, and things working out a little too easily, this is a moving book, filled with compassionate, insight, and courage. A beautiful story.
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