God Is in the Pancakes

When Grace Manning takes an after-school job at a local nursing home, little does she know that resident Frank Sands and his wife, Isabel, will have a profound effect upon her life. Grace grows into her new job and takes a particular interest in Frank, who is suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease. Should she honor his request for Grace to help him end his life? Cassandra Morris flourishes in the role of a high school student who is taking on both the small issues of family and school relationships and the huge issue of life and death. Morris can be a breezy, high-spirited, and sarcastic Grace in the moments when the teen is full of confidence or a despondent Grace when she wrestles with decisions. As narrator, Morris moves the story along steadily, letting Grace herself impact the listener. A.R. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

May 10, 2010
In Epstein's (the Groovy Girls series) powerful and poignant novel, her first for teenage readers, 10th-grader Grace narrates her exploration of life's conundrums as she faces difficult choices in every close relationship, some of which are literally a matter of life and death. Reeling from her father's sudden departure from their family and adulterous relationship with a church friend, Grace feels abandoned by him and by God, left to confront complex issues alone. Should she tell her older sister, Lolly, that Lolly's boyfriend is cheating? Can she support her overwhelmed and exhausted mother and ever speak to her father again? How should she cope with the new feelings she's having for her best friend, Eric? And most importantly, when the terminally ill Mr. Sands, her favorite patient at her after-school nursing home job, asks her to help him die, what is the moral response? Unsentimental but caring intergenerational relationships and spot-on adolescent banter provide humor and hope in this stellar addition to the coming-of-age genre, which offers neither judgments nor simplistic answers. Ages 12–up.