• Age: 10 to 18
• Grade: 5 to 12

Teens who get pregnant and raise their babies are often in the news. But what about those children who are growing up with parents scarcely half a generation older than themselves?

In this wise and funny first novel by Carole Lazar, Lucy is a sensible, perhaps even rigid, thirteen year old who is convinced that Grandma, God, and the Catholic Church are on her side. She tries hard to make her twenty-eight-year-old mother see the error of her ways. It's not that her mother is wild - in their household even a fancy coffee causes a scene - but she has had to put off her own teenage years and she's chaffing at the restraints on her life. Lucy is faced with the loss of her family, her home, her school, and even her best friend. As she struggles to preserve what she can from her past life, she finds that while Grandma, God, and her church are still there for her, there are problems she has to solve for herself.

Carole Lazar's profile page

CAROLE LAZAR practiced law for ten years in British Columbia, before serving as a provincial court judge from 1989 until 2008. Lucy Unstrung is her first novel.

Lucy Unstrung

In 13-year-old Lucy’s opinion, she and her parents have a pretty satisfying life… until her mother decides that she needs some space and moves out. Lucy waits impatiently for her mom to come to her senses, but when her mother rents a dilapidated trailer to live in, Lucy is forced to accept that this just might be for real. When she then realizes that this new living arrangement means going to a different school, she is deeply fretful. Facing a number of new and disconcerting situations — a classmate who takes an instant dislike to her; her mother going on dates, and her parents arranging to sell their house — Lucy turns to the things that have always been her source of comfort and certainty: Grandma, God and the Catholic Church. Eventually, however, this resourceful young lady learns to see things from a different perspective and to come to terms with the new realities of her not-so-bad life.

Lucy’s typical teen self-absorption and her less typical sense of self-righteousness are at once comical and endearing, and they set her apart from other middle-grade literary protagonists. Readers will be amused and impressed by her no-nonsense approach to trying to maintain and/or restore order to her now topsy-turvy life. Although the story is told from Lucy’s point of view, it is not hard for readers to sympathize with her mother’s need to spread her wings and set some new goals. As Lucy grudgingly begins to see her mother as an actual person with dreams of her own, readers can see her maturing and broadening her own world view. While she doesn’t lose faith in God or Grandma, she does learn some important lessons about the other significant people in her life. This is a charming and delightful read… for 13-year-old girls and those who have to deal with them.

Lucy Unstrung

Lucy is a sensible 13-year-old who is convinced that Grandma, God and the Catholic Church are on her side. But as her parent’s marriage falls apart, money gets tight and her best friend suggests the worst, she begins to question her faith. As she copes Lucy finds that while Grandma, God and her church are still there for her, there are some problems she has to solve for herself.