Book Review: What I Saw and How I Lied

April 2, 8:36 AMSeattle Books ExaminerDanielle Dreger-Babbitt

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I didn't know what to expect when I picked up Judy Blundell's young adult novel What I Saw and How I Lied .  I haven't had much luck recently with young adult novels.  I tried to get into both Scat by Carl Hiasaan and Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta and after a hundred pages of each I threw them down in frustration (Jellicoe Road made me think of what would happen if Lord of the Flies took place at an Australian boarding school).

What I Saw and How I Lied takes place in post-World War II Palm Beach, Florida.  Evie Spooner, her glamourous mother and stepfather leave their home in Queens for a vacation in Florida in 1947.  While vacationing, Evie and her family meet Peter Coleridge, a 23 year-old ex-GI who served in her stepfather's company in Germany.  Evie, 15, immediately finds herself attracted to Peter despite their eight year age difference and her family's objections.  As she falls deeper for Peter she finds herself in a web of complicated lies that only she sees.  When she discovers that everything she believed to eb the truth was a lie, she must choose between her love for Peter and her loyalty to her parents.

I don't want to allude to what the lies are because it would totally ruin the book.  What I will tell you is that I devoured this book in an afternoon/ evening.  It is pretty evident why this won a National Book Award.  It probably should have won a Printz Award.  There are very few books that even touch on the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in post-World War II America.  It kind of reminds me of Judy Blume's Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself.  Although it isn't as funny, the prose is just as tight and Evie is every bit as likeable as Sally. 

Blundell is also a best selling author of Star Wars novelizations.  With the success of her first young adult novel I seriously hope she continues to write for teens.  Actually, what I really hope is that they make this into a movie.  It's that good.