But ever since their country, Ireland, went to war with Germany, they don’t feel the same way. Half German and half Irish, she’s as beautiful as a movie star. Dru’s perceptions and observations are right on target, and Bunting shows clearly that the pressure to conform or concede can be as blatant as a demand to jump off a cliff or as subtle as a request couched in gentle words.īunting shows the confusion and hysteria that wartime brings to the lives of the young, and in the process paints a true to life and often very funny picture of boarding school life in a more innocent era.’ Kirkus ReviewsJessie and her best friends in boarding school have always loved their teacher, Miss M ller. The author does equally well in recalling the uncertain stirrings and emotions inherent in new relationships. Bunting excels in her descriptions of the cliff, the anticipation of the jump, and Elisa’s wild imaginings of what she experienced in the watery depths. Bunting’s message is obvious distraught Elisa will do anything to keep her chauvinistic boyfriend and commits suicide when he is unfaithful another boy jumps in order to impress flirtatious Diane and Dru feels pressure from her boyfriend, who requests that she change her plans and go to a local college, and from her mother, who urges her not to let this boy the rich son of mom’s first sweetheart slip away.

This jump causes her chronic depression to resurface, and raises for Dru all sorts of issues regarding peer pressure, insecurity, and parental demands. A jump off the cliff into the ocean below rates an entry on the roster of names carved into the cliff’s ‘danger’ sign, and now, despite the risk, Dru’s best friend, Elisa, is jumping in order to please her boyfriend. Rising 90 feet above the water, the cliff known as the Nail looms large in the legends of the teens in the coastal community of Paloma, California. Have You Seen My New Blue Socks? (2013).You Were Loved Before You Were Born (2008).My Special Day at Third Street School (2004).

Little Badger’s Just-About Birthday (2002).

Little Badger, Terror of the Seven Seas (2001).

The Man Who Could Call Down Owls (1994).

The Skate Patrol and the Mystery Writer (1982).

Snowboarding on Monster Mountain (2003).

Janet Hamm Needs a Date for the Dance (1986).

Someone is Hiding on Alcatraz Island (1984).

Karen Kepplewhite is the World’s Best Kisser (1983).

Strange Things Happen in the Woods (1978).

My Box by Eve Bunting