THE NOAH CONFESSIONS
Barbara Hall
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Fiction
Hardcover: 0385733283
Paperback: 9780385733298
240 pages

Lynnie Russo has always been an obedient daughter to her widowed father and a model student at the exclusive Los Angles private school she attends. Like all the other girls at school, Lynnie fully expects to receive a car --- hopefully a new one --- for her 16th birthday. But instead of an automobile, her father gives her an old, chipped charm bracelet with birds on it.

Receiving a used charm bracelet --- and an ugly one at that --- makes her angry, embarrassed and disappointed. She realizes that her father won't give her a car because her mother was killed by a drunk driver while on the road. Knowing the reason doesn't make her hurt any less; she thinks her father is being unreasonable and unfair. 

To get back at him, she ditches school and spends the day learning how to surf with one of her free-spirit classmates. And that's just the beginning of Lynn's rebellious behavior. While visiting her mother's gravesite, she befriends an unkempt "public school" boy who wears old jeans, a faded fatigue jacket and beaten-up, low-brand sneakers.  

After her father learns about what Lynnie has done, rather than punishing her, he presents her with a manuscript. "The Noah Confessions" is a combination memoir, love letter and confession written by Lynnie's mother when she was her age. After Lynnie starts reading the handwritten manuscript, she discovers the kind of person her mother really was and learns the significance of the charm bracelet. She also begins to understand why her father clings to her mother's memory.

THE NOAH CONFESSIONS is an inspirational tale about how circumstances, choices and sacrifices can shape lives and how events that occurred long ago can reverberate into the future.

   --- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt (dvolkenannt@charter.net)

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