Rgz Street Team: Traci Reviews Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

The rgz Street Team is a group of teens who bring YA reviews to our blog, led by Postergirl Miss Erin. Find out more.

Today, Traci reviews Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. [And yes, I should have posted this last month during Sara's featured time! My bad. --Melissa]

"Change... it's one word that most people fear or just refuse to acknowledge. In Jennifer Harris’ old life things hadn’t been so good, but at least she had Cameron, her true friend. Even though Cameron’s father was abusive and Jennifer was having problems at school and in her social life, as long as they both were close, it made things tolerable. Problem is, one day Cameron disappeared, tearing Jennifer apart. Multiple years later he reappears, but by this time Jenna has a new name, new life, is popular at school, has friends, and “change” is her middle name. Will she have room in her life for him or will she refuse to help a friend because it requires her to look back into a past life which brings up painful truths and secrets?

"Sweethearts is a very different book. From the beginning, Sara starts addressing drama in schools, abuse, bullying, big moves, parents, boyfriends, emotions, etc. All things which individually or united are dealt with by teens on a daily basis, especially today. I applaud books such as this one because it has a message of hope while staying in reality. One of my biggest pet peeves is books (or movies, at that matter) that try to reach out to people or broadcast messages and completely overdo it to a point where the book will be put down or movie turned off." --Traci