Solace of the Road

Holly has landed in the foster care system in Britain after being abandoned, and abused, by her addict mother. In one final act of drug-induced anger, Holly's mother burned her with an iron.

Holly's two best friends try to draw her into prostitution when she is 13; one friend sells her body while her other friend acts the pimp, but when Holly tries she is arrested. Holly's mother also worked as a prostitute to earn money for drugs, and as a dancer in a club. When Holly goes on the road, she goes home with a strange man to have a place to sleep; when he finds out she is not yet 15 he refuses to sleep with her and throws her out.

Fairly mild considering: "Christ," "hell," and "Jesus" are uttered.

Holly smokes cigarettes; her mother drank and was a drug addict; her friends in the group home drink and do drugs. She drinks at a club after she runs away.

Parents need to know that this is a compelling story about a girl coming of age while dealing with the aftermath of an abusive childhood and abandonment by her mother and the stress and pressures of moving into a foster family with a couple who are well-armed with good intentions, but no parenting experience. It paints an honest picture of what life is like for some abused and/or homeless teens and the results of some of the bad decisions the main character makes, and it also depicts the real dangers that a teen would face alone and on the road. It doesn't in any way glorify drinking or drugs, or even attempt to rationalize an incident of shoplifting. At one point Holly considers suicide. Teens who have not lived through similar experiences will come away with a deeper empathy for teens who have, and those teens who have lived through abuse or homelessness may come away with hope, and a deeper understanding of how they are shaping their own futures by current actions.