This was an OK book. Got your attention right away, but then got very slow and in my opinon boring.

about a 13 yr old girl who gets kidnaped, raped, beat and left for dead on the side of the road by a classmates older brother on the last day of school. She then shakes up in the house and refuses to leave and stops being friends with her friends. refuses to go to therapy and takes up playing the piano.

thats pretty much the whole book. i was a little disappointed. ( )

“Safe” by Susan Shaw is a good book. What caught my attention is the title and the what I read from the back of the book. The book is about a a girl, who is thirteen years old, whose mom past away when she was little. Even though her mom was dead she felt like her mom was always with her until the last day of school when she was walking home and since they came out early her block where she lives was lonely. Her best friend lives a couple house away so they walked together. On the last day they both walked home and her best friend Caroline went inside her house thinking nothing was wrong like if it was a usual day but it wasn't really because the thirteen year old girl got forced into a car and rapped and beat by one of the kids in her class older brother. The older brother who raped her left her out in the street after he beat her and raped her thinking she was dead but she wasn't. Her dad ended up finding her and took her to the hospital and the police arrested the guy. This really affected her and she didn't want to go outside of her house. After this she never felt safe again, she couldn't feel her moms protection anymore but she started to get better with the help of her best friend, dad, and playing the piano. I like really like this book because now I know its not safe anywhere even though you think it is and the most unexpected people can hurt you. I recommend people read this because they can maybe relate or learn something from this. ( )

This was a low-key, even elegant treatment of what can be a very messy topic. Although the protagonist was clearly raped and brutally beaten, the attack itself is not described at all, so I think the book would be suitable for young teens and even some mature tweens in spite of its subject. It was easy to sympathize with Tracey and her trauma and slow psychological recovery from the event was realistic, as were the actions of the people around her.

This would be a good companion book to the oft-recommended Laurie Halse Anderson novel Speak. ( )

I thought this was a really good book... sort of like Speak, but with younger characters, which really makes it more difficult to read. i thought Shaw did a great job getting into the characters and portraying the fear and loneliness. I loved the father, and the two friends were also pretty realistic. Good book overall. ( )

Tracy is thirteen years old. On the last day of school, she is grabbed by the older brother of one of her classmates. He rapes and beats her, leaving her for dead. She manages to recover, but though he is in jail, she is afraid to leave the house. With the help of her father, her understanding best friend, and a newfound joy for playing the piano, she starts to heal. ( )