Defining Dulcie - Hardcover

Paul Acampora lives in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. This is his first novel.

*Starred Review* Gr. 7-10. "I was a John Jacob Jerome High School janitor like my dad," Dulcie explains in her droll, up-front manner, referring to her after-school job. "So far I'd lived to tell about it." Her father had not--dying suddenly after a freak encounter with toxic fumes. Now Dulcie's mother wants to escape their small Connecticut town, and whisks Dulcie away to California. Grieving for both her father and her old, comfortable life, the plucky teen borrows her mom's Chevy truck and drives back home to live and work with her grandfather, a janitor at the same school. During a transformative summer, she and her loving family--reconciled Mom included--rally to help another student janitor through a crisis of her own. Dulcie's deadpan wit, the quirky road-trip premise, and a cast of appealing adult and teen characters combine in this unusually strong first novel, which may remind some of Joan Bauer's Rules of the Road (1998). Despite an unfortunate cover image, which depicts a girl who appears much younger than Dulcie's 16 years, many YAs will connect to an outwardly tough character who can nonetheless admit that sometimes she "feel[s] very breakable." An affecting, engaging family story, uniquely told through the janitor's lens. Anne O'Malley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved