Synopses & Reviews
The woman policeman says why don't you come in here, and so I went. It was a little room with a table and some chairs. That was all. Instead of a window, there was a big mirror. I wouldn't look at that. I didn't want to see myself. I sat down and folded my hands. There was still blood under my nails, so after a minute I put them under the table . . . -From the book This is the story of how thirteen-year-old Linda came to be involved in the murder of one man and the suicide of another. The police and her social worker think they know the answer, but they've got it wrong. Here Linda tells her own story. She sees her world and what has happened to her with compelling clarity. Her voice is direct, cool, and ruthlessly honest. She'll persuade you that she is neither victim nor fool - that the facts speak for themselves in this National Book Award Finalist. Like Howie and Laura in The Goats and Celine in Celine, Linda is a character who will captivate you from the first word. This is a life you will never forget.
Review
At the request of her social worker, thirteen-year-old Linda gradually reveals how her life with her unstable mother and her younger brother led to her rape and the murder she witnessed. "This astonishing novel . . . leaves us haunted by its profound message of expiation and renewal."--San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
When she is found standing at the bloody scene where her mother's boyfriend committed suicide and her elderly lover was murdered, thirteen-year-old Linda will have a lot of explaining to do about how things got so terribly out of hand. Reissue.
Synopsis
Linda has lived through a nightmare.
When the police find thirteen-year-old Linda, she is standing silently on a blood-spattered parking ramp, the only witness to a murder/suicide. The now-dead gunman was her mother's boyfriend. And his victim -- old enough to be Linda's father -- was her own lover. Here is Linda's harrowing story, in her own ruthlessly honest words. It is a story you will never be able to forget.
Synopsis
An uncompromising look at a sexually active adolescent adrift in a world where she is neither victim nor fool--the facts speak for themselves.
Synopsis
This is the story of how thirteen-year-old Linda came to be involved in the murder of one man and the suicide of another. The police and her social worker think they know the answer, but they've got it wrong. Here Linda tells her own story. She sees her world and what has happened to her with compelling clarity. Her voice is direct, cool, and ruthlessly honest. She'll persuade you that she is neither victim nor fool - that the facts speak for themselves in this National Book Award Finalist.
About the Author
Brock Cole is an award-winning children’s author as well as a noted artist and illustrator. His latest novel, The Facts Speak for Themselves, is an honest, uncompromising portrait of adolescent life from an author with a startling ability to capture the poignant and confusing reality of today’s youth. Brock Cole’s The Goats was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Notable Book, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and a Booklist Children’s Editor’s Choice. The New York Times Book Review praised it as “a beautifully written and persuasive first novel,” and the Chicago Sun-Times called it “one of the best novels of the year.” His second novel, Celine, was called “a masterful novel” by School Library Journal which named it a Best Book of the Year. It was also named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Booklist Editor’s Choice, a Booklist Best Book of the 80’s, and a Publishers Weekly Notable Childrens Book of the Year. Brock Cole lives in Buffalo, NY.