For Your Eyes Only! - Softcover

A realistic novel, in the form of a journal, made slightly above average by the author's use of poetry. Mr. Moffat, the sixth-grade substitute teacher, asks everyone in Lucy's class to keep journals that he might read. Lucy is articulate about her rather typical concerns and activities. She lives with her divorced mother and comments upon her father's new love life. She has squabbles with her girlfriends and is tormented by Andy, a classmate who turns out to be the victim of abuse. The terrain is familiar, if not predictable. The teacher introduces the children to poems by Lilian Moore, Langston Hughes, Valerie Worth, and others, reprinted and commented upon by Lucy. She writes poetry, too, most of which seems too accomplished for her character. The poetry gives this a lift but doesn't sustain it; Andy's serious problems are dealt with too quickly and neatly. (Fiction. 8-12) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 4^-6. Sixth-grader Lucy Keane is excited about her new substitute teacher, generous Mr. Moffat, who writes a poem on the chalkboard each Monday and gives every student a notebook to start a journal. Through the journal, Mr. Moffat becomes Lucy's confidant and inspiration. Lucy begins writing poetry and becomes more attentive to the world around her, and her feelings about her divorced parents, her best friend, and the bane of her existence--a boy named Andy--come to light and are resolved. Andy's slow emergence as a writer and character contrasts nicely with Lucy's fast, emotive growth, and the journal format, graced by Lucy's perceptive voice, is quite appealing. The poems used throughout are well chosen and manageable for the age group, making the fiction more compelling and the book a good introduction to poetry and writing. Kathleen Squires