Shelter

Structured in the form of a present-day videotaped journal, Whitmore's moving, often funny first novel shares Skyler Baxter's impressions of her 16th summer when her mother built a fallout shelter. The teen begins her narrative with a bang: "It's where I lost my virginity and also my mind. In that order. But then I got it back again. My mind, that is." The shelter is the brainstorm of Skyler's romance-writer mother, who is determined to keep her family safe should disaster strike. But the Baxter family is already starting to show signs of stress fractures and, ironically, the underground room becomes anything but a safe harbor. Skyler's twin brother, Will, hides his illegal drugs there and almost dies from an overdose, and it's where Skyler loses her virginity to Will's best friend, realizing too late that she has made a terrible mistake. Throughout the novel, readers feel the teen narrator's growing sense of helplessness in fixing her family's problems. Besides fearing that Will is following in the footsteps of their estranged, drug-addict father, Skyler is also distressed about her mother's relationship with a controlling new boyfriend. Spare narrative charged with emotion eloquently expresses the growing tensions in the Baxter household. Readers will sigh with relief when Skyler temporarily stops playing the role of observer to take action, reaching out to save the people she loves. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)