Parents' Guide to Without Tess

Violence & Scariness

The pivotal event is Tess' death by drowning, which is foreshadowed when "pretending to drown" is one of her favorite games. Another scene involves a "magic" blood ritual in which Tess stabs herself and Lizzie with a unicorn earring, with dire results.

The girls and their friends live on the seashore, and perhaps as a result, they have a cheerful callousness about using the body parts of dead sea creatures for projectiles and other playthings. In addition, there's one episode that haunts both of them, in which toads they've captured bake to death in the sun because Tess and Lizzie have forgotten about them and gone off to eat a popsicle.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Some kissing, along with Lizzie's hilariously snarky comparison of her poetry teacher's presentational style to that of a late-night sex hotline worker. Kids who haven't learned the term "double entendre" will acquire it here. Some of Tess' more disturbed behavior, while not explicitly sexual, is certainly sexually charged. One particular episode finds her in a trance-like state licking a cat -- which, after a certain point, is having none of it and lashes her across the face, drawing blood, as a stunned Lizzie and a neighbor look on.

Positive Messages

Love and loss, power, and helplessness, holding on and letting go -- all inescapable life lessons and balancing acts for everyone. Lizzie and her family struggle with an especially devastating dose and eventually come to terms with their inability to save Tess, their survivors' guilt, and the fact that life can still be beautiful.

Positive Role Models

Dr. Kaplan, who counsels Lizzie at school, is wise and insightful. Lizzie's parents, though as out of their depth with Tess as most parents would be (based on her journal and Lizzie's accounts, Dr. Kaplan suspects she was psychotic), are intelligent, committed, and loving. Childhood friend Niccolo Amodeo shows loyalty, tenacity, and romantic interest in Lizzie when they become teens.

Educational Value

Readers will pick up a bit about Judaism and Catholicism from the lives of the Cohens and their neighbors the Amodeos. But the main educational value is in following Lizzie's progress in coming to terms with a horrible loss and her sense of guilt, and the relationship between her sister's world and the one in which everyone else lives.