Sweethearts

Sweethearts  by Sara Zarr

What is your earliest memory?  Do you remember being 3?  Jennifer does.  

What is your strongest memory?  For Jennifer it was 5th grade.  That was when everyone at school called her “Jennifer Fattifer, and her only friend was Cameron.  

Strong memory-involved bits of flashbacks continue through the book...including some parts of that memory that Jennifer can’t face yet...including some parts that she has never shared with anyone but Cameron. Then things change dramatically - Cameron disappears.  Everyone says he was killed.  

Now flash-forward to when Jennifer is 17.  Jennifer’s mother is remarried and they move- and Jennifer remakes herself into the thin, fun Jenna with the gorgeous football player.  But you know that strong memory?  It keeps coming back in bits and snatches.  Then Cameron reappears, and he says they must face that memory together.  

Sexual and physical abuse; coarse language; ages 14 up