Safe

Starred review from October 29, 2007
In this extraordinarily tender novel, Shaw (The Boy from the Basement
) eloquently encapsulates what it feels like to be a victim of rape. On the last day of seventh grade, Tracy is brutally assaulted by an older boy she knows. From that day on, even after her attacker is arrested and pleads guilty, she has trouble believing she is safe. Worse, she can no longer find any comfort in her memories of her mother, who died when Tracy was only three. “I couldn’t even think of Mama and the yellow rose and the yellow dress or the way her stories felt.... How could I fix the shattered piece?” Feeling unprotected, disconnected from her once-happy childhood and alone, Tracy stays indoors for almost the entire summer, unable to face unknown horrors. Going to a therapist doesn’t help, although she does find some relief when she practices the piano. Soon music becomes the center of her days, distracting her from scary thoughts but also further isolating her from friends. Intimate, first-person narrative honestly expresses Tracy’s full range of emotions as well as her state of paralysis, unable to think about her attack or move past it. The author adroitly avoids spelling out the particulars of the rape, conveying its impact through Tracy’s conscious or subconscious choice to try to blank out the details. Readers may find themselves so engrossed in Tracy’s trauma that they might have trouble putting the book down until Tracy finally comes to terms with her experiences. Ages 14-up.

Starred review from December 1, 2007
Gr 7 Up-As this compelling and well-crafted novel opens, Tracy has already experienced more than her share of trauma and loss. Her mother died when she was three. Then, on the last day of seventh grade, a classmate's older brother abducts her, rapes and beats her, and leaves her for dead. Tracy has survived, but how is she going to live? Set in the immediate aftermath of the rape, the first-person narrative follows the girl's struggle to regain her equilibrium. While classmates and teachers pity her and fear for her, readers experience her urgent attempts to reconnect with the memory of feeling safe. Vivid metaphors and tactile images make her private world a rich and rewarding place to be. Tracy is no pitiful victim. As she works through a period of agoraphobia, she finds ways to help herself heal. She has a lot to draw on: a kind father, the memory of a loving mother, good friends who wait in the wings for her "return." But in the depths of her post-trauma reaction she must first discover safety within herself. She draws on the power of music and her own creativity long before she is ready for talk therapy and all that comes with it. In the literature of trauma, this book is a rare find. The violence and pity are offstage. The focus is on Tracy's feelings as she discovers her capacity to heal in the shadow of pain and loss. Her growth is realistic and hopeful. This is an excellent and ultimately reassuring book."Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2007
Raped (offstage) and left for dead by the older brother of a classmate, 13-year-old Tracy loses that deep-down feeling of safety that had always been her sturdy base. Though the rapist immediately disappears into the criminal justice system, fear of him remains, coloring Tracys thoughts and feelings as she tries to convince everyone around her (with varying success) that she is OK. Shaw puts Tracy on a hard road toward healing, helping her out with a newly discovered passion for the piano, a comforting Eileen Spinelli poem, several stubbornly loyal friends, a loving father, and a mother who has been dead for a decade but whose memory provides the touchstone forthe security Tracydesperately seeks to recover. Some characters and plot elements are sketchy, but Tracys narrative, more inwardly focused than Laurie Halse Andersons Speak (1999), makes absorbing reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)