The Horn Book Guide

OLDER FICTION

Pennebaker, Ruth

Both Sides Now

202 pp. | Holt | March, 2000 | Trade ISBN 0-8050-6105-3 $$15.95

(1) YA A mother and daughter each wage their own battles in the face of mom's breast cancer. Persistently optimistic, Liza is determined to outrun her mother's illness and any other troubles in her path. Her mother's brief, wrenching narratives are brutally honest about the pain her family's denial is causing her. Of course, it is Liza's "flaws" that make her human and interesting in the first place, and the widening gap between mother and daughter will resonate with teenage readers.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2000