Grade Levels: 7-12
Category: realistic fiction
Read-Alouds: pp 12-19 (the accident); 88-92 (Laurie’s blackmail plan); 172-174 (Laurie finally telling what really happened)

Summary: The lives of four high school students; Analise who is the victim of a hit and run driver, is in a coma and eventually dies. Analise’s boyfriend, Jeremy, who loves her deeply and works through her injuries and her death by building furniture. Laurie, a freshman who goes out with Quin just to be popular like her mother was in high school. And Quin the high school athlete determined to become a professional baseball player no matter the cost. Quin and Laurie are returning from a party when Quin hits Analise. Thinking he hit a deer, Quin hides the hole in the road with brush and continues home. Laurie figures out Quin hit Analise and not a deer. Laurie knows that if the truth about the accident is made public Quin will lose his opportunity to play baseball so she blackmails him into letting her be his girlfriend. Laurie doesn’t become the popular girl she thought she’d be and loses her only real friend and eventually tells the police what really happened.

Themes: Morally right and wrong: Laurie wants to be popular so she doesn’t tell anyone the truth about the accident. Quin wants to be a professional athlete and is willing to let Laurie be his girlfriend, even though he can’t stand her and the situation just to keep her quiet. Quin’s dad, who hides the evidence of the accident by selling the car.

Discussion Questions:
• Laurie’s dad was supposed to come visit her at Christmas and didn’t. Do you think if he had Laurie would have told him about the accident? Explain your thinking.
• Did Laurie do the right thing by telling the truth about the accident? Should she have told the truth sooner? Why or Why not?
• What do you think happened to Laurie and her mom after she told the truth? Why do you think that?

Reader Response: This story was about a huge moral dilemma that could become a part of life for any one who drinks and drives. We have a huge problem with underage drinking and I would like to share this book with my students to show them how quickly lives can be irrevocably changed in a second by a bad decision made while drinking.

The only good thing about this book was that is was a fast read. I didn't like how it was very spacy and didn't have a very clear flow. It did have some nice values that came about in the end, but I didn't feel that retribution was made. I wouldn't recomend this book to anyone. ( )

A sad, dissapointing book. The book is slow at the beginning. It goes slowly to the climax-where it ends within five pages. This book is highly unsatisfying. You may read the first page, and say wow this is good. But in the end you are left with more dissapointment. It was a decent plot, where you see all points of view. McDaniel had the right plot, but she just couldn't pull through when she wrote it. ( )

Lurlene McDaniel fans will like this new one. Told from four different points of view, Quin - popular athelete dates naive freshman, hits girl on bike, attempts to keep it secret, etc. ( )