LETTERS FROM THE INSIDE

In this haunting epistolary novel, two Australian teenagers try to discover the truth about each other and themselves. For Mandy and Tracey, who become pen pals when Mandy answers Tracey's ad in a magazine, the truth is not always easy to discern. At the beginning of their correspondence, it seems that Tracey's life is idyllic: She has a loving family, two gorgeous boyfriends, and more money than she can spend. Mandy, on the other hand, is solidly lower-middle class with a frightening and violent older brother. But when Mandy discovers that Tracey has been lying about where she goes to school, she looks back over their entire correspondence and catches other inconsistencies in Tracey's letters. She pushes Tracey to reveal her true identity and is unprepared when what she discovers is far more unbelievable than Tracey's lies had been: Tracey is in a maximum security prison for girls for a crime that she refuses to name. Mandy decides not to abandon her friend, and she and Tracey begin the long process of getting to know each other. With Mandy's help, Tracey is sure that she can rehabilitate herself, but what if she is forced to do it alone? Proof that originality need not be reserved for adults. Startling. (Fiction. 12+)