Three recent novels for middle school and young adult readers give portrayals of tenacious adolescents that perpetuate values of honesty and self-confidence. In each, the coming-of-age conflicts seem nearly insurmountable but through determination, hopeful conclusions are reached.
WEEPING WILLOW by Ruth White. 1992, 256 pages. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $16.Tiny Lambert began high school with all the trepidation she had carried throughout her life; fear of not being accepted and a realization of her lack of talent and abilities. Her only friend since childhood had been Willa, an imaginary playmate who had to be hidden. Her mother's depression, the demands of three stepsiblings and a violent stepfather only confirmed her notion of a cynical outlook on life.
Her surprise came with a greeting from the school's most popular girl, Bobby Lynn: "You could measure a person's popularity by the number of heys she got, because the morning hey was designed to pay homage . . . Somebody had actually hey'd me in the hall, and now somebody else was inviting me to sit with her."
Tiny became swept up in a social whirl and life seemed to turn around until her drunken stepfather noticed her blossoming womanhood. The foreshadowing and the eventual sexual abuse is not described, but the fear she feels through the allusion will not be lost on the reader.
Tiny's stepfather threatened her if she told, but she took a strong stand when a younger stepsister cried in fear of the man also.
There is a full checklist of strong literary qualities in "Weeping Willow." The setting - the '50s in rural Virginia - is an appropriate stage for the slang and dialect and out-of-mainstream beliefs of the staunch people.
The characters range from tender and sweet Aunt Evie, who has waited a lifetime for a lover who never returned to her, a music teacher with wisdom and perception to a local minister who haughtily defends the stepfather's actions, "A man in the prime of his life has certain needs . . . and if the wife does not meet those needs, he must turn elsewhere."
"Weeping Willow" is a quietly styled story, which holds smatterings of anger, love and rage. All these accent Tiny's pursuit of self-esteem, which she does in a convincingly solitary way.THE DIVING BELL by Todd Strasser. 1992, 159 pages. Scholastic Hardcover. $13.95.
The setting for this historical novel is the Spanish occupation of early America in a secluded village near the Mexican coastline. This is a poor village devastated by storm: "But the villagers were not angry. They were accustomed to the calamities of nature and the angry wrath of the gods. The devastation of the storm meant that it was time to rebuild . . . again."
Oulca wanted to dive like the boys, but her mother forbade it: "She wants to be a diver like her brother . . . Since when do women dive? What will her husband do? Make tortillas?"
Oulca is appeased by being sent to study with the local friar. "In Oulca's religion there were many gods; the most important were the gods of rain, corn, medicine and the sun . . . The friar's religion had saints whose roles seemed similar."
The Spanish come to kidnap the young divers to retrieve gold and silver from galleons sunk off the coast. But the ships are too deep for diving and Oulca's brother is sure never to return.
Using the idea of air captured under an inverted barrel for breathing, Oulca convinces the Spanish to use the church bell as an aid to the divers in finding the sunken treasure.
There is no lack of adventure in "The Diving Bell" which, according to the author, is based on historical fact. Each chapter has gripping episodes such as shark attacks, men taken as prisoners and battling with nature for survival.
Oulca is surely a strong female protagonist who will make an impact on young readers.
SONATA FOR MIND AND HEART by Mary S. Bell, 1992, 240 pages, Atheneum. $15.95.
"Warmed by the lesson, my fingers flew up and down the neck of my violin, and I was soon lost to everything except the music. It's one of the reasons I like to play; the music takes over; everything drowns in it and it's easy to forget."
Sixteen-year-old Ron Simon is a gifted violinist like his father. He has been given an opportunity to audition for a scholarship to study in America. His mother does not encourage the music and almost defies his travel from Toronto to New York City to compete.
Since Ron doesn't have the money to enter the competition and his mother constantly complains about the cost of his music
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lessons - using that as an attack on her ex-husband - Ron tries to find a way to earn his expenses.
A man in a string ensemble offers him the money he needs if he'll agree to carry drugs across the Canadian border from New York in his violin case. Ron's decisions are huge ones; and the outcome is nearly disastrous.
Ron, the young musician, is the pivot of this story, and the tug and pull of his estranged parents, a budding romance with Judy Gregg, who can neither commit to her talent or a friendship, and the brutal underworld of drugs all inflate the theme of personal realization to its fullest.
The inclusion of information about musical scores, groups and instruments makes "Sonata for Mind and Heart" a sophisticated and fast-paced novel for teenage readers.
Marilou Sorensen is an associate professor of education at the University of Utah specializing in children's literature.