Book Review: In Between by Jenny B. Jones

Cover of In Between: A Katie Parker Production by Jenny B. Jones

Katie Parker is the new girl at In Between High.

Katie Parker is a regular teenage girl. She listens to her iPod, is searching for the right group of friends – ones who bring out the best in her, dislikes her militant gym teacher and the hundreds of push-ups she forces Katie’s class to execute, struggles to stay awake in math and welcomes a plate of homemade cookies.

But just like most teenage girls, most people actually, there’s more than meets the eye. Katie is the new girl, because she’s just been taken in as a foster child. She needs foster parents, because her mom is in prison for dealing drugs. Her foster parents seem to be keeping a secret from her. And there’s her foster grandmother, Maxine, who among other things, drags Katie along on an impossible mission dressed in black with branches glue-gunned to her hot pink bicycle helmet.

Also, just like me and you, Katie’s searching for hope when things seem hopeless, for joy where there is pain and for answers where she has so many questions.

I highly recommend this fast paced, amusing and emotional story. Author Jenny B. Jones (not to be confused with bratty first grader, Junie B. Jones) weaves a beautiful tale of searching that we can all relate to, peppered with hilarious humor in all the right spots at a high school who’s mascot is the Chihuahuas. Although the problems in Katie’s life don’t magically resolve themselves, she works hard to make some changes. And although Katie doesn’t find all the answers she’s looking for, she’s on the right track.

What are you searching for today?