Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O'Roark Dowell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I listened to the audio of this book at the same time as I was reading My Life Undecided. I found that I often got the stories crossed because in some ways they are similar. Janie Gorman is a girl trying to fit into her high school. She, like the main character in My Life Undecided, Brooklyn Pierce, ends up hanging out in the library during lunch because things are so unbearable at school. Both girls pursue boys that are wrong for them. However, Ten Miles Past Normal, has a more serious side. Janie has to do a project for school that helps her to get to know an elderly man who worked with his wife for civil rights during the civil rights period. She deepens her understanding not only of the period, but of herself and her relationship to the world. This combined with her additional discovery of self as she learns that she really does want to play bass guitar for reasons other than hanging out with her secret crush Jeremy Fitch, makes her an interesting character to read about. The book should be a hit with middle school girls.
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