Looking for JJ
By Anne Cassidy
Published by Scholastic
-
-
Children's Book review
When a 10-year-old girl kills her best friend, she is convicted of manslaughter and locked away. Seven years later she is released on licence with a new identity. In this brave and intelligent novel, Anne Cassidy explores a myriad of themes, questioning everything from the ethics of tabloid journalism to the outcome of ineffectual parenting. It asks more questions than it answers and suggests that in some circumstances there is no ‘right’ or 'wrong', merely 'consequences'. Should our sympathy lie with the killer as she is relentlessly pursued by the press, hungry for a story, or with the victim and her family in a society desperate for justice? This is a brilliant and disturbing piece of writing that looks behind the headlines and forces the reader to question some of his/her attitudes to a number of contemporary issues. Looking for JJ won the 2004 Booktrust Teenage Prize
Reading age: 13+
Interest level: 13+
