Cooley, Beth. Shelter.

COOLEY, Beth. Shelter. Random House, Delacorte. 224p. c2006. 0-385-73330-6. $15.95. J

Fifteen-year-old Beth is the protagonist of a reverse Cinderella story. One day she is living the life of a pampered, middle-class suburban teen, shopping at the Gap, eating her mother's home-cooked Beef Stroganoff, and socializing with the other girls at Bentley Academy. Her biggest problem is her little brother. The next day her father is killed in a car wreck and all his financial shenanigans come to light. He wasn't exactly dishonest, just a risk taker, and maybe all would have been well had he lived. Beth's mother, who had only a year of college before marriage, never "worked" a day in her life, and before long, they lose the house, they have no income beyond welfare, and end up living in a homeless shelter with its lack of privacy and its other unrefined residents--unwed mothers, former dope dealers, abused wives, and the like. Plus, Beth must now attend public school and make her way through the stereotyping and ostracism she finds there. Gradually she makes new friends from her fellow inmates in the lower social orders, and finds and appreciates a boyfriend she would never have noticed before. Her mother is even finding her way back into the middle class.

One of the themes of this novel seems to be grabbing life by the horns and living in the moment: let the future take care of itself. Yet a niggling question remains: isn't that what her father did, tainting himself and leaving a legacy where he is all-but-forgotten in the rush of new events? Myrna Marler, Assoc. Prof. of English, BYU, Provo, UT

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.