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Blind Faith    by Ellen Wittlinger Amazon.com order for
Blind Faith
by Ellen Wittlinger
Order:  USA  Can
Simon & Schuster, 2006 (2006)
Hardcover
* * *   Reviewed by Lyn Seippel

Liz's mother and her grandmother have always had a special relationship, one that fifteen-year-old Liz wishes had included her. When Bunny dies, her mother throws herself on the coffin and is so depressed that most days she doesn't even get out of bed. Liz misses her grandmother and finds that her mother won't share her grief any more than she did the love between them. She is also unable to understand anyone else's heartache.

Nathan and his family move in across the street from Liz with Mrs. Crosby. Mrs. Crosby is a cranky neighbor who is firmly avoided by Liz's family. Liz can't avoid Courtney, Nathan's sister, though. Before she knows it, Liz has become nine-year-old Courtney's new big sister.

Getting to know Nathan is much harder. He knows something that Courtney does not. Their mother is dying of leukemia and they've moved in with their estranged grandmother because they have nowhere else to go.

Much to the frustration of her dad, Liz's mother finds relief in a spiritualist church whose leaders claim to deliver messages from the dead. When she begins taking Liz and inviting Nathan's dying mother, he's had enough and moves into an apartment in the next town.

A roller coaster ride of emotions, this touching story is about relationships of all kinds. Relationships between parents, grandparents, and their children. Relationships between husbands and wives; old and new friends; girlfriend and boyfriends; neighbors; and with God.

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