The Last Chance Texaco
Brent Hartinger
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 HarperTempest
ISBN: 0060509120

Teenager Lucy Pitt's family died in a car crash when she was little & she's been in foster homes ever since.

Now Lucy has ended up in a San Francisco house for foster kids who aren't wanted anywhere else. Among its residents, Kindle Home is known as the Last Chance Texaco, because it's the last stop before being shipped off to the high-security juvenile detention center on nearby Rabbit Island -- better known as Eat-Their-Young Island to anyone who knows what it's really like.

Now Leon, a counselor who came up through the system himself, brings Lucy to the old, ramshackled group home. Against her better judgement she begins to enjoy herself although she's confused: the people who run Kindle Home seem to like what they're doing, even work at making the place comfortable ... all except Emil, the therapist, who clearly has a negative opinion of all the kids he counsels.

Lucy is no shrinking violet, in fact she's quite used to defending herself. She knows well the pecking order, & the Kindle Home alpha-female, Joy, is a bully with a conniving streak a mile wide. All too soon she becomes Lucy's nemesis.

Come with Lucy as she warily learns the ropes, finds her place. Come with her to her new school which turns out to be for rich kids, one of whom, Alicia, sets her up for humiliation. Then in Biology Class Alicia's boyfriend taunts her & Lucy hauls off & gives him a black eye.

Naturally, there are consequences: Leon is called in to advocate for her & Lucy is put on probation, & garbage collecting for detention. Because of Leon's defense, so is Nate, the boy she hit. At first they avoid each other, until one afternoon they squabble over some trash. A strange truce begins between them. They start talking, start enjoying each other's company.

Meanwhile back at Kindle Home, things are not going so well because Joy is throwing her weight about; Emil is given Lucy a hard time; one of the other kids goes into meltdown, & Thanksgiving is upon them. That's when Lucy realizes she'd do just about anything to stay at this group home. That she'll have to do some work to keep this door to happiness open.

& then two really bad things happen: the funding for Kindle Home is ended, & a car is set on fire on the street outside, & the neighbors blame the group home kids.

How Lucy handles herself among her fellow inmates & at school, with the group home staff & Nate are the stuff of growing up, allowing oneself to hope for a better life.

The Last Chance Texaco is thrilling & thought-provoking. I could not put it down! It is filled with frustration, anger, courage, hurt, deceit, & learning to hope & love for the first time.

An excellent read for Grades 7-10.

Do catch my Interview with Brent Hartinger.

More from Brent Hartinger: Geography Club

Visit “Brian's Brain” at: www.brenthartinger.com. (08/15/04)

Rebecca