Behind Closed Doors

Gr 8 Up—This work explores the complicated relationships between two teen girls and their families. Fifteen-year-old Josie Tate struggles to juggle school, a job, and her mother's growing hoarding tendencies. Josie uses the money from her job to pay for food and clothing because her mother's illness has left her unemployed. Things seem to get better for Josie when she meets Jordan, an Olympic hopeful. However, Jordan's rich family makes her even more aware of the strangeness of her living situation. By contrast, Tasha Brown is a teen whose popular facade hides her growing fear of her mother's boyfriend. She avoids interactions with him by partying with her best friend, Dom, and managing several overnight stays with friends. The two protagonists are brought together unexpectedly when Josie's mother is thrown into jail for tax evasion and Tasha runs out of places to stay. Josie realizes she will need help to figure out how to save her mother. Tasha has to decide if she will give her mother another chance. The young women must learn to work together to fix the problems the adults in their lives have created. Child abuse, social services, mental illness, and homelessness are thoroughly examined in the process. Josie and Tasha start out as frenemies and then become friends, and the roles they play shift over the course of the narrative, which helps with the pacing of the story.