A young girl takes a forbidden journey into family history and learns that more important than finding the answers is being brave enough to ask the questions "Journals," by Louise Palanker, dares to ask the difficult questions that tug at 10-16 year old kids or anyone who has ever been one. (This may include most adults)
Have you ever wondered what boys are thinking about girls or what they're thinking about love and sex? Have you ever wanted to know why your parents are moody or always mad at you?
Have you ever really needed to know why some people can hate other people enough to kill them?
These are just some of the gigantic questions haunting 12-year-old, Lanie Spurdle who lives in Buffalo, New York in 1970.
Of course, she's equally troubled by the smaller questions like, "Why do I have to wear a bra?" and "Does Clayton Murray like me as much as I like him?"
But as she begins to write in her journal and as she discovers and reads her father's World War II journal, the world comes into sharper focus for Lanie.
Do all of her questions get answered? Well, maybe and maybe not. But Lanie learns that the most important thing of all is not so much getting the answer, but being brave enough to ask the question.
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