Flyaway

Ariel, 17, has led a stifling existence. Her fatherto all outward appearances an exemplary parentexercises an unbending, crippling control over his family's lives. Ariel can neither have her own money nor choose her clothes; she can see only the few friends her father approves of. During her senior year, she plots and eventually carries out an escape, rejecting marriage as an out and finding a humble but promising job in a nearby city. Ariel narrates a powerful, unusual story of the strength and determination that can arise from adversity. It is, however, kept from being fully affecting by an overly adult tinge to the telling, by a sketchy treatment of a few important elements (Ariel's boyfriend remains a hazy figure; we never really understand her sister, whose own attempted flight thus fails to deliver much impact) and, most of all, by a resolution in which everything falls too easily into place. Ages 12-up. (October)