Devon is scared. She is in Tacoma's Juvenile Detention Center and she can't quite remember why. She remembers that a few days before she was home alone, which she always is as her mom works two jobs with graveyard shifts. She feels a pain in her stomach and in the bathroom hours later, she gives birth to a baby, not even realizing that she is pregnant. Panicked, Devon puts the baby in the dumpster outside her apartment building. The next morning the cops show up at her door and once they figure out that she is the mother of the baby they arrest her and take her for the hospital for postpartum treatment.

Now Devon is in the detention center, she hasn't seen her mom in a week (no one knows where she is or how to reach her and she hasn't come to visit). And the prosecution wants to try Devon as an adult, with a maximum sentence of life in prison. Devon and her lawyer have to struggle to try and keep her case in the juvenile court.

Amy Efaw spent a lot of time in the Tacoma Juvenile Detention Center and it shows. I think she does a great job describing, without judgment what life is like in a detention center and the harsher truths of court with POs you never see, and court appointed lawyers who don't seem to care. Although Devon has done something that most of us consider horrifying you can really identify with her and realize that she is just a teen and when things got out of control she wasn't sure what to do. Although this book is about a difficult topic for some people I think that Efaw has handled it in a very delicate way. She approaches a tough topic in a way that opens it up for discussion for almost any age group. This would be great in a book group or in the classroom. – Kate Pickett

This book will be released on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009