Once Was Lost
CCBC Review:
When a DUI sends her mother into rehab at the New Beginnings Recovery Center, Sam feels her absence like an acute pain. Even while helping her mother hide her increasing drinking, Sam had felt connected to her in a way that’s missing with her father. A charismatic and popular preacher in their small town, her dad willingly helps everyone in the congregation with their problems but is unable to talk openly with Sam about their own family. Meanwhile, Sam is questioning her religious beliefs and feels like an outsider in her church youth group. When a young teen from the congregation vanishes, Sam is worried for her; at the same time she feels both eager and wary regarding the new romantic overtones in her friendship with the missing girl’s brother. Sara Zarr captures small-town social culture with credibility, while developing characters of all ages that are realistically sympathetic and flawed. In less skilled hands, the storyline about the girl’s disappearance could have easily fallen into melodrama, but Zarr keeps it grounded and believable. ©2009 Cooperative Children's Book Center
CCBC Age Recommendation: Age 13 and older
Age Range:
Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-13)
Grades 9-12 (Age 14 and older)
Format:
Novel
Subjects:
Addiction
Drugs and Alcohol
Faith, Spirituality and Religion
Fathers
Love and Romance
Mothers
Small Town Life
Diversity subject:
Psychiatric Disability/Condition
Publisher:
Little, Brown
Publish Year: 2009
Pages: 217
ISBN: 9780316036047
CCBC Location: Fiction, Zarr