UNDERCOVER

In her YA fiction debut, Kephart’s fluid writing style and ability to illuminate the meaningful and beautiful in the everyday combine to create a tale that is both winningly different and comfortably familiar. The bare bones of high-school sophomore Elisa’s story hold no real surprises. She worries about her parents’ relationship and misses her father, a consultant who’s been away from home for several months. She feels alienated from her mother and older sister, whose classic good looks and preoccupation with fashion she doesn’t share. And she’s got a crush on a boy who is already taken. But Elisa’s voice is engagingly original. She has an acute awareness of the world around her and a strong love of nature. She’s motivated—she explores, teaches herself to ice skate and excels in school. And she has a talent for writing, which helps to makes the first-person narrative convincing as well as compelling. Through Elisa’s poems, letters and descriptions, Kephart perfectly plumbs the thoughts and feelings of an adolescent girl. Captivating. (Fiction. YA)