Kat Got Your Tongue

June 4, 2007
Although this novel's premise—traumatized teen suffers from amnesia—may seem soap-operatic at first, Weatherly (Child X
) infuses enough complexity and intrigue into the plot to keep readers absorbed. Nobody knows why 13-year-old Kathy ran out in front of a car or why her resulting injuries have triggered a loss of memory. More mysteries arise as Kathy (who now prefers to be called “Kat”) discovers unsettling facts about her past. She learns that she was once a gifted musician, but no one can tell her why she gave up playing the violin. Her father is dead and her mother seems reluctant to talk about him. Most puzzling of all is the odd behavior of the three girls who were supposedly her best friends. Instead of being sympathetic about her plight, they seem angry at her, believing that she is faking her illness. Flashing between past and present, the author offers insight to the girl's troubled state of mind before the accident and simultaneously traces her difficult reentry into a world full of strangers. Connections between Kat's love of music, her father's death and her friends' hostility finally come to light when a hidden journal is discovered that explains the sequence of events leading to the heroine's accident. Even though the novel ends before her memory returns, teens will rest assured that recovery is imminent as Kat comes to terms with the person she used to be and a past that cannot be totally erased. Ages 12-up.

September 1, 2007
Gr 7-9-This novel begins with a bang, literally. Kathyor Kat, as she comes to be knownhas just been hit by a car. Though she is physically fine, she discovers that she has lost her memory completely. Her mother, her mother's boyfriend, her friends, and even her own appearance are strange and unsettling to her. More bizarre is the revelation that Kat has done something horribly wrong that has caused her not only to earn outcast status at school, but also to attract the ire and threats of the small group of girls whom Kat's mother claims are her friends. The story is told in the first-person and alternates Kat's narration with details from the past that she had been recording in a journal prior to the accident. Weatherly does a good job of differentiating between the Kat of the present and Kathy of the past. As readers, along with Kat, follow the story of her unknown past, an element of suspense creeps into the plot and readers are asked to consider the ultimate mystery: who any of us really are. While the use of amnesia as a plot device is reminiscent of many soap operas, readers are given cause to examine this disability a bit further and consider it, as Kat's grandmother urges her to do, something of a gift. "'But think about it, ' Nana says, 'you're seeing life in a way few people ever get tocompletely unencumbered by all the baggage we normally carry. New, fresh; like you've only just been born.'""Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2007
A young teenage girl suffers only slight physical injuries after she is struck by a car, but she loses her memory and her self-recognition. In this well-paced story, Weatherly presents Kats new personality and her past in alternating chapters that flip between the present and her journal from the months before the accident. Its clear to Kat that the girls at school, whom her mother believes had been her friends before the accident, seem to hate her, and she worries that she did something to cause that hatred. Her mother (Kat has no problem believing that the woman who claims her at the hospital is indeed her mother) obsesses over Kats need to regain her memory; to Kat, this feels like a rejection of the person she is today. Weatherly writes with fluid grace and makes this story line compelling, sprinkling bits of humor into Kats journey toward recovery. Both before and after the accident, Kat is genuineas are her former friends, her mother, and even her mysterious father.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)