Breaking Faith

January 1, 2017

Gr 9 Up-Faith is a mere toddler when she witnesses a bloody shoot-out between police and a neighborhood gangster. Because Faith's single mother and her bitter grandmother provide a very loose and dysfunctional family structure, Faith never receives guidance or counseling. With her two half sisters, Constance and Destiny, she grows up in a poor, run-down area where drug use is rampant and where their widowed mother succumbs to addiction, leaving them very much alone. The one person whom Faith can trust and talk with is her older sister, Constance, the daughter of the only man their mother ever married. Told in Faith's tortured voice, this novel traces the path of despair as she loses everything that a growing young woman needs to survive and thrive. Abandonment, neglect, scorn, and a profound lack of positive adult influence send Faith to the streets, where she ekes out an existence focused maniacally on one goal-finding and using heroin. Reminiscent of notable classic titles such as Go Ask Alice and Alice Childress's seminal work, A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich, Graziani's heartrending novel is a gritty, realistic voyage through a teen's path of despair and the all-too-tempting panacea of self-medication through drugs, which soon destroys those who would "chase the dragon." VERDICT Many older teens will connect with this believable portrait of a teen experience with homelessness and addiction.-Denise Kim, Bronx High School of Science, NY

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