Catalyst - Laurie Halse Anderson

Catalyst, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a very well written story about a teenage girl, Kate, in highschool. She's a senior, and she made the mistake of applying to only one college. This, among other things, is causing Kate to stress to the point of ansomnia. She's a student of math and chemistry at heart, and loves the subjects, showing the relationship between them and every day life situations in a unique and creative way. When the home of the family next door burns down, and her own father, the minister, takes them in to their own house until the rebuilding is finished, Kate thinks that she really can't handle it - especially since the neighbor's daughter happens to be her school enemy. However, she learns to look past appearances and facades into the person behind the reputation and bitter anger, realizing some of her own shallow ambitions aren't, perhaps, what's really best for her overall. Written in such a way as that you feel with Kate her confusion between being the perfect preacher's little girl, and the rebellious teenager in all of us, you become intricately woven with not only the plot, but the emotions and confusions that complicate these learning experiances in life - not to mention a surprising twist near the end.

Chelsea Grimmer

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