A Heart Divided

March 1, 2004
Shortly after Bennett and Gottesfeld's (the Trash series) strained novel opens, a family move wrenches 16-year-old narrator Kate from her suburban friends and beloved playwriting workshops in New York City, and immerses her in Redford, a small Tennessee town. Disgusted when she learns that the Confederate flag is the emblem of the high school football team, called the Rebels, Kate joins a campaign to change the team's insignia and name, a crusade spearheaded by a black girl. Meanwhile, Kate loses her heart to Jack Redford, a handsome, popular, too-good-to-be-true senior whose family has given the town its name and a long line of military heroes. While his mother assumes Jack will follow his ancestors and enroll at the Citadel, Jack longs to be an actor and Kate, of course, encourages him to follow his dream. The simmering racial tensions reach a crescendo when the burning of a Confederate flag before a big football game triggers a mêlée during which a gun goes off and—in a stretch of credibility—Kate's younger sister is the only person wounded. The tale comes to a melodramatic close with a play written by the heroine, who throughout has been trying to find an authentic voice. The issues here offer much to ponder, but the presentation, like the relationship between Kate and Jack, often seems close to soap opera. Ages 12-up.

May 1, 2004
Gr 8 Up-When her parents decide to move from New Jersey to Tennessee, 16-year-old Kate is bitterly unhappy about giving up her friends and her spot in a prestigious playwriting workshop. Racial tensions abound in Redford and Kate learns quickly that she is a very northern girl in the middle of a very southern town. She decides to write a play about the town's act of flying the Confederate flag and the opposition that it causes. When she meets Jack Redford, a Romeo-and-Juliet-type romance begins. Kate joins the students trying to get their school's team name changed from the Rebels and the Confederate flag taken down, and Jack struggles to explain to his mother that he does not want to attend the Citadel, even though it is a family tradition. His mother also decides that Kate is not the girl for him. Readers can sense disaster on the horizon, but when it strikes Kate's innocent sister, only then does the protagonist truly understand the importance of experiencing life before writing about it. While Redford does not exist, it is based on real locations, making the setting believable. The authors have created passionate characters, an emotional climax, and an ending that suits the story, successfully weaving these elements into the voice of Kate Pride, an endearing teen who often lacks humility but believes in herself and her ideas.-Delia Fritz, Mercersburg Academy, PA

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2004
Gr. 6-10. The husband-and-wife team who wrote " Anne Frank and Me" (2001) build their latest novel around a hot-button issue, setting a romance between Kate, a Yankee who transfers to a Southern high school, and Jack, a gorgeous boy descended from the town's most celebrated Civil War general, against rising tensions triggered by a campaign to replace the school symbol: the Confederate flag. Events spiral into absurdity when someone fires a bullet during a demonstration and it strikes Kate's little sister, jolting Kate (an aspiring playwright) out of a creative slump to pen an opus that gives voice to all sides of the issue. Kate is a vibrant, appealing character, but the same can't be said of her supporting cast: they are either mouthpieces for a viewpoint or figures plucked from a sudsy teen romance. For all the weightiness of the topic, this still feels like light reading, but YAs, especially girls, will be held rapt by the drama and romance, and the resulting discussions will be no less fruitful for having been prompted by a popular read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)