GOD IS IN THE PANCAKES

Fifteen-year-old Grace is sure that most of life’s problems can be solved by eating pancakes. They’re what she eats when Mr. Sands, a resident of the nursing home where she works, asks her to kill him with an overdose of pills before he succumbs to ALS. Since Grace’s father left, Mr. Sands has been her father figure. While Grace grapples with Mr. Sands’s request, she’s also facing new romantic feelings for her longtime best friend, Eric. Within her immediate family, she alone holds the secret about her sister’s cheating boyfriend, and she misses her newly divorced father. As Mr. Sands’s condition deteriorates, Grace knows that she has to make her decision, one that is further complicated by the relationship she has developed with Mr. Sand’s wife. Pancakes as a metaphor may be a new idea, but here it comes across as silly rather than philosophical. Too many plotlines get tangled, and their resolutions are largely dissatisfying. With a tighter focus on the plot and less obvious symbolism, the fluid dialogue and sassy side of Grace’s personality would shine. (Fiction. YA)