Book Descriptions
for Leftovers by Heather Waldorf
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Sarah hates having her picture taken, although she’s never told anyone why: For years, her dad took sexually exploitative photographs of her. Her dad is dead now, and all Sarah wants to do is destroy the pictures once she finds them. That’s hard to do from a distance, however, and she’s spending the summer at Camp Dog Gone Fun. Working at the camp for homeless and abused dogs is the community service sentence she earned when her mom’s boyfriend tried to take her picture with his new camera and she flipped out and stole a car. Trying to keep the past contained means not letting anyone see into her heart, but a dog named Judy and a boy named Sully make that a challenge, especially after Sarah’s mother discovers the photos and the past is no longer Sarah’s private torment. Heather Waldorf tackles this difficult topic with a narrative pitch-perfect in tone. Sarah’s voice is compelling for both its humor and its pain. A fine cast of supporting characters rounds out a compelling story that marks the hopeful start of Sarah’s healing.(Age 13 and older)
CCBC Choices 2010. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2010. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
Fifteen-year-old Sarah Greene's father -- chef by day, camera buff by night -- choked to death on a piece of steak. It was the best day of Sarah's life. But a year later, Sarah still struggles with the legacy of her father's abuse. While other girls her age are determined to find boyfriends and part-time jobs and dresses for the prom, Sarah is on a search-and-destroy mission: to find the shoe box containing her father's collection of kiddy porn. After a brief skirmish with the law, Sarah is sentenced to do community service hours at Camp Dog Gone Fun, a summer program for shelter dogs. With the love of a big goofy dog named Judy, the friendship of Sullivan, a guy with problems of his own, and the support of a few good adults, Sarah begins to understand her past and believe in a brighter future.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.