Klepto

March 20, 2006
Readers may not always be attuned to the references to '80s fashion, music, TV shows and hairstyles in this first novel set in 1981, but they will certainly find it easy to relate to the narrator, who introduces herself as "Julie Also." Julie Prodsky feels undeservedly lucky for her friendship with her new "too cool and exotic" friend—Julie Braverman—whom she meets right as she is starting at New York's High School of Performing Arts. Soon, the 14-year-old is stealing clothes and jewelry all the time, first at Julie's prodding and then even alone—and she's not sure she can stop. But when the narrator tells Julie she is not going to do it anymore, her friend angrily tells her, "Enjoy your new life." The author realistically captures the tension between teens and parents: when narrator Julie asks her mother if she can see a therapist, her mother agrees without asking questions, leaving the girl feeling "kind of bummed out." Pollack includes other full-bodied characters, from the heroine's first boyfriend, who can be romantic but pushes her sexually, to her best friend's own liberal mother, whose blasé attitude when her daughter is finally arrested comes off as more cold than casual. All in all, this is a well-constructed book, one that ultimately provides a good model of girl friendship. Ages 12-up.