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“Story of a Girl” by Sara Zarr (Little, Brown Young Readers, 9780316014533, $16.99)

Sara Zarr’s first book is a teen novel of uncommon honesty: It tells the story of 16-year-old Deanna Lambert, who has been living under a shadow for the past three years--ever since the night her father found her in a car in a compromising position with a much older boy.

Her dad’s anger and disappointment would have been weight enough, but Deanna also has other burdens: the boy she was with, who took advantage of her youth and his status as a family friend, fed her private life into the ravenous high school rumor machine, and she has been painted with the reputation of “school slut” ever since.

Now in the summer of her sophomore year, Deanna is trying to come to terms with the scarlet letter she wears and to take back ownership of her life. She’s getting her first job, standing up for herself, and trying to break down the wall of hurt and silence that her still-angry father has built up between them. None of this is easy, and no one expects anything good from her, but Deanna isn’t willing to let her past errors and an all-around bad situation sink her future before it even gets underway.

Mixed up in all this are the problems her older brother is having with his fledgling family; both their parents’ employment worries; difficulties Deanna is having with her friends; and the weird tension in her work environment, which brings her uncomfortably close to the older boy who first helped start everything spinning.

“Story of a Girl” is about the consequences of having sex as a teenager, but it portrays nothing explicit. The book does deal with the honest, rounded experiences of young people who have been told that their choices have permanently diminished them in value. It isn’t preachy, and it isn’t blind to reality or to the double standards frequently applied to boys and to girls. It is a searching and powerful story that goes behind rumors and easy assumptions to urge teenagers to believe in their own worth and to encourage them not to accept any attempt to belittle or to take advantage of their profound and difficult desire to be loved.

For ages 13 and older.

Review by Mark David Bradshaw, July 25, 2007

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