Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1767180 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 160 pages

From Amazon.com
Raina is 16, pregnant, and an all-too-frequent victim of her drug-addicted mother's violent rages. Ms. Johnson is Raina's fortysomething teacher who has a love-hate relationship with her job and a serious problem with the fact that she has no life outside of work. This pair seems too caught up in their own problems to pay much attention to each other, but how else will Raina be saved from her family's cycle of abuse--and Ms. Johnson rescued from her suffocating self-pity?

Cynthia D. Grant has broached the topic of survival before, in Mary Wolf and Uncle Vampire--both of which feature strong girls persevering against impossible odds. The White Horse explores this same tough-as-nails territory but adds a responsible, caring adult who is not afraid to admit her own fallibility: "I am not cut out for this. I'm a lousy teacher. The kind who uses the word 'lousy.'" Alternating between Ms. Johnson's wry, humorous voice and Raina's heartbreaking journal entries ("Maybe heaven's like that, a big quiet room where you sleep beside the people you love. You can't see them or feel them, but you can hear them breathing, and there's blankets, and everybody's warm"), this book will open both teen and adult eyes to the unique set of issues that each may face. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly
Grant (Mary Wolf; Phoenix Rising) turns out another top-rank problem novel as she unfolds a homeless teen's story via a multistranded narrative. Third-person accounts closely profile Raina as she and her drug-addict "fiance" scramble to find shelter each night; Raina writes bitingly eloquent stories of her childhood for her English teacher (staying in school is desperately important, Raina knows, although she can't say why); and that teacher, Peggy Johnson, privately saddened by the infertility that destroyed her marriage, delivers ironic, self-aware monologues. After the death (a possible suicide) of Raina's boyfriend and her belated acknowledgment of her own pregnancy, Raina reaches out to Peggy for help. Several painful intervals elapse before Peggy sets aside her barely voiced wish for a knight on a white horse to transform her life, and before Raina distances herself from the cruel abuses of a mother addicted to the "white horse"?heroin. Grant carefully builds each character and balances their interactions, avoiding the sensationalism suggested by the story line. An understated and deeply poignant portrayal of a troubled teen. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up-Definitely not for Marguerite Henry fans, this book is about a horse of a different genre-drugs. No newcomer to realistic young adult fiction, Grant tackles head-on the subjects of drug dependency and teenage pregnancy. Raina is the product of generations of abuse. Her mother, a crack addict and dealer, is the daughter of an alcoholic mother and sexually abusive father. Raina survives on the streets; after her drug-addicted boyfriend dies and she discovers she is pregnant, she goes to the only kindly adult she knows-her English teacher, a woman whose marriage ended with her inability to conceive a child. However, Raina's mother is interested in the baby as a needed source of welfare money. Could this be any bleaker? Mother still has not forgiven Raina for ruining their chances to go on the Larry Singer Show and display their dysfunctional lives. Readers will be totally unprepared for the rosily happy ending-yes, the kindly teacher adopts both Raina and her baby. Characterization is a big problem. There are so many negative characters-virtually all of the teen's living family members, as well as her boyfriend's boorish, wealthy father. The teacher does not really know Raina, except through brief creative-writing exercises. Grant captures all of the grim reality of one teen's life of homelessness, abuse, and poverty. However, Melvin Burgess's Smack (Holt, 1998) is a more riveting and gritty British look at heroin addiction, pregnancy, and survival.
Marilyn Payne Phillips, University City Public Library, MO
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.