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Jessica, a serious, bookish 16-year-old from New Brunswick, places a personal ad to try to find her father, a drug-dealing philanderer who has run off with another woman, leaving her mother distraught and Jessica responsible for her autistic brother, Timmy. Sween, a 17-year-old rebel from Saskatchewan, responds to Jessica’s ad, and the two begin an intense long-distance relationship. Each needs the other's support, as Jessica finds herself drawn to one of her father’s biker friends, and Sween suffers a meltdown that lands him alone in a remote cabin. Eventually, he fixes up an old motorbike and travels east to help his friend prevent her father from institutionalizing Timmy. The resulting encounter surprises them both — along with the reader — as they struggle to reconcile their images of each other with a very different realityChildren's LiteratureA teenage boy, Sween, and girl, Jessica, form an unexpected friendship when Jessica initiates a search for her father, Gunner, by placing a classified ad in the Globe and Mail publication. Each chapter represents one letter from either Sween or Jessica. As their letters progress, a story unfolds. Their correspondence leads to discussions about their interests, beliefs, schools, and family. As their friendship strengthens, mature subjects about abuse, self-inflicted pain, sex, and running away take center stage. Both teenagers take comfort in each other and their "spirit animals" (spiritual guides which take the form of animals) throughout their daily situations. Through Jessica's letters, Sween learns that Jessica's younger brother Timmy is autistic. He also discovers that she feels responsible for Timmy's welfare, which makes him admire and respect her. The subject of autism, a growing concern in today's society, is timely and handled appropriately. Though the subject matter of the letters and mild profanity used in this piece lends an authenticity to the conversation of these two teenagers, these factors also call for a more mature audience. Reviewer: Jamaica Johnson Conner
