It I Tell
by Janet Gurtler
Raised by her grandparents, seventeen-year-old Jasmine, the result of a biracial one night stand, has never met her father but has a good relationship with her mother until she sees her mother's boyfriend kissing Jaz's best friend...
If only. . . if only I hadn't gone to that party. I never would have seen what I did. Jackson wouldn't have driven me home. I wouldn't have started to fall for a guy just out of reform school. I could go back to pretending everything was normal. I wouldn't be keeping a secret from my mom that could blow our family apart. . .
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this young adult book. Jaz has had an unusually upbringing. I won't say it was terrible because she had grandparents who loved her and raised her. Her mother had gotten pregnant as a teenager and hadn't been able to deal with the idea of being a mother - but she is still a part of her daughter's life. Her father took off and never looked back. She is also biracial - which is a minority (nonexistant) in the town she lives in, so she has never really felt like she belonged. Because of an incident that happened in elementary school, she has closed herself off and can count the number of friends she has on one hand. They are somewhat misfits like herself, but she is happy to have them. Unfortunately when she sees one of them kissing her mom's boyfriend, well, let's just say it hurts to lose one of the few friends she has.
I liked the relationship between Jaz and Jackson that develops - how they each discover they have things in common. Things that go beyond what the eyes can see. I think that Jaz does a lot of growing in this book. She deals with some difficult truths and learns how to trust - both herself and others. This is my first Janet Gurtler book, and I would definitely recommend it - especially to my daughters.
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About the author: Janet Gurtler lives in Calgary, Canada, deliciously close to the Canadian Rockies, with her husband, son, and the memories of a sweet little dog named Meeko. Janet does not live in an igloo or play hockey, but she does love maple syrup and says "eh" a lot.
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