Where People Like Us Live

June 1, 2008
Gr 9 Up-Libby is used to moving from state to state following her father's downward spiral of temporary employment. Rubberville contains the usual factories, discouraged neighbors, and hardscrabble life. But this time Libby makes a best friend right away. Angie-brassy and seemingly fearlesslooks a lot older than Libby, although they will both be high school freshmen in the fall. There's a lot about Angie to disturb readers, such as the way she forces Libby to stand too close to an oncoming train, but Libby is smitten with her. She does pick up on the creep factor in Angie's stepfather, who is both menacing and flirtatious. When she stumbles on them having oral sex, she is thrown off-kilter. Should she keep silent to protect her friend, which is what Angie asks her to do, or tell and get help? The best-friend-of-the-abused trope has become a fixture of YA literature. What makes this book stand out is not literary quality but the gritty and honest exploration of Libby's confusion about sexuality, coercion, friendship, and power. Honest, too, is the portrayal of Angie, a girl who has had to develop extreme defenses to survive and who is so in need of love that she can't distinguish between nurture and exploitation. Angie is no pitiful victim, thankfully, but rather a tough, damaged girl who has learned to survive. The struggles and warmth in Libby's own family provide a contrasting sense of normalcy."Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2008
The summer before she will begin high school, Libby and her restless family move once again, this time to a run-down neighborhood called Rubberville in Racine, Wisconsin. Settling into their new life, Daddy goes to work for a local factory while Ma cleans houses. Lonely, Libby quickly befriends her new neighbor, Angie, despite Mas warning that making friends too fast is making friends with trouble. Mas words prove prophetic when Libby learns a disturbing secret about Angie and must decide if she will risk sacrificing their friendship to save her friend. First novelist Cumbie does a nice job of exploring the complexities of adolescent friendship, but an even better job of bringing to life Libbys family, the neighborhood in which they live, and the economic challenges they must confront and overcome. Her characters have a dignity and innate courage that readers will not soon forget.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)