Lu Ann Brobst Staheli (The ALAN Review, Fall 2003 (Vol. 31, No. 1))
Natalie Wills sometimes dreams she's a monster. She can't believe she's a worthwhile person. If she were, wouldn't her mother do something more about putting her own life together so that Natalie didn't have to move into a foster home? Natalie loves to run. Maybe, if she keeps running, all of her problems will go away. Maybe, she won't have to face the fears and the pain. Maybe, the Parker family will work out their own problems once she's no longer in the way. But foster-dad John, school-acquaintance Mary, and Coach Landers stand at her crossroads, keeping Natalie on the winning path toward the end of her run, Mom and home. In this stunning first novel, author Mette Ivie Harrison takes the reader inside the thoughts of a young girl, forced to face a world filled with adult problems. You'll find yourself running along with her every step of the way. Category: Foster Care. YA--Young Adult. 2003, Holiday House, 156 pp., $16.95. Ages young adult.Spanish Fork, UT

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, June 2003 (Vol. 56, No. 10))
Thirteen-year-old Natalie is grimly resigned to her foster-care placement with the Parkers, but she’d be far happier back in the group home, where expectations were lower and she was able to slide through life unobserved. She slowly begins to adjust to the Parkers, realizing that they’re not the perfect family she had envisioned but instead a family succeeding in the face of their own strains and obstacles, and she slowly dares to connect with the people around her, especially through her love of running, which nets her a place on the cross-country team. The hardest thing of all, though, will be forgiving and starting again with her recovering-addict mother, and Natalie’s not sure that she’ll be able to--or even wants to--do it. This is fairly programmatic, from Natalie’s periodically interpolated monster dreams of convenient symbolism to the nice girl at school with her own dark past to the occasional tendency towards sentimentality (“I really won. And it feels like it was more than just a race”). Underneath the predictability, however, is some solid storytelling about a girl who hasn’t had much help finding her place in the world and who therefore isn’t entirely sure of what to do when she has a chance at one. The story is, like Natalie’s running, well paced, and her joy in her athletic prowess is effectively conveyed; the open-ended conclusion has an honesty missing from some foster-child sagas. This doesn’t have the polish of Paterson’s classic The Great Gilly Hopkins, but it’s still an accessible tale of a girl’s tentative but crucial growth. (Reviewed from galleys) Review Code: Ad -- Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 2003, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2003, Holiday House, 176p, $16.95. Grades 4-7.

Cindy Faughnan (VOYA, October 2003 (Vol. 26, No. 4))
Thirteen-year-old Natalie Wills is sent to the small town of Heber, Utah, to live with a foster family while her mother recovers in rehab. She begins jogging with her foster father, John, who encourages her to run with the cross-country team. On her birthday, her two foster sisters surprise her with a necklace; she thought they had disliked having her living with them. She begins to realize that the way she sees people might not always be accurate. Through her interactions with this family, she learns to trust people and works to conquer the monster she thinks she has inside of her. Although at first she wants nothing to do with her mother, she realizes that there is a possibility of trusting her again and living with her in the future. The feelings of being a foster child and of having such a young person live in one's family are nicely illustrated in this novel. The foster family is not perfect, and Natalie must learn how to fit in. The running theme is predictable, including the race at the end of the book where the girl from school who has tried to become friends with Natalie aids her. Using the sport of running to show how everyone is connected to one another fits with Natalie's personality and what she must learn in order to move on with her life. This book will appeal to middle-level readers who enjoy reading about relationships and families. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P M J (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2003, Holiday House, 156p, $16.95. Ages 11 to 15.