"Everyone remembers age thirteen. For Alison Glass, it was the year she moved to Weston, Connecticut, with her bohemian parents and her horse, Jazz. Back then life was about trying to navigate the hypocrisies of an unfamiliar affluent town and figuring out how she might blend in at school. Shy, observant, and in a back brace for scoliosis, Alison found strength in an unlikely friendship with Kate Hamilton, the charismatic but troubled daughter of an egomaniacal new age guru - the "sham shaman" - and his substance-loving wife." "The year was 1975. As the sincere but comically misguided "Women of History" plan the town's bicentennial celebration (complete with red, white, and blue Porta-Potties), the girls escape into the world of their horses. Seeking refuge from the chaos surrounding them, Alison and Kate ride the trails on the edge of suburbia and make up their own alternate history. Aurelie Sheehan sends us reeling back to our adolescent years, making them feel as real as when we first lived them while deftly revealing their lingering influence on the adults we become. With the clarity of hindsight, Alison looks back on the giddy highs and crushing lows that made her the person she was at thirteen, and the friendship that simply couldn't survive the weight of the shadows under which it was forged." "Set against the backdrop of the disturbingly reckless and often hilariously tacky 1970s, History Lessons for Girls is at once an emotional inquest and an elegy for a friendship that meant everything."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Set in 1975, Sheehan's second novel skillfully depicts an adolescent girl's small but resonant steps toward adulthood; unfortunately, the bigger steps are handled with a bit too much theatricality. The teenage tendency toward obsession-whether for horses, a particular band or CD, or a single, all-consuming friendship-provides the fuel for this uneven suburban coming-of-age, capturing with artful simplicity the quotidian magic of an improbable friendship. Unpopular 13-year-old Alison Glass, new to Weston, Connecticut and afflicted with scoliosis, and the popular, independent Kate Hamilton discover one another and the world. Sheehan nails important adolescent moments like playing it cool when offered a first cigarette or having one's taste in music scrutinized by a new friend. The quiet pleasures of the pair's private moments clash with increasingly stagy subplots: Alison's persistent fear of undergoing surgery to correct her spine, the over-the-top violence of Kate's drunk, greedy father, and the indiscrete affair between him and Alison's hippie mother. Sheehan perceptively identifies the outside world as a corrupting agent in fragile friendships; however, as Kate herself comments, "It's usually not so damn obvious." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Sheehan's first novel, The Anxiety of Everyday Objects, dealt with a young woman seeking direction. Her second book also centers on a young woman recalling a pivotal year in her life. Thirteen-year-old Alison Glass, marked by the scoliosis brace she wears as well as by her nonconformist artist parents and their not-quite-successful transition into suburbia, is destined to be an outsider. She is saved from total isolation and humiliation by Kate Hamilton, a girl gifted with the ability to be different and still belong to the in crowd. The two spend hours together riding horses, Alison free of her brace and Kate free of her abusive parents. As part of a class project, they write about a lost heroine named Sarah, whose story intertwines with their own, revealing their hopes and fears. The girls' friendship is a gift that allows Alison to withstand a year of odd medical treatments and the slow dissolution of her family. It is not quite enough, however, to allow the pair a perfect, happy ending, grounding this compelling coming-of-age story in melancholy. Recommended for public libraries. Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll. Lib., NC Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

With her cumbersome back brace and bohemian parents, 13-year-old Alison is an outsider in her Connecticut town until popular Kate befriends her. At school, and on their horses, the girls find escape together. Against a backdrop of 1970s dysfunction (abusive new-age gurus; parental drug benders), the family secrets are sharp and shocking. In her second novel, Sheehan juxtaposes small moments the way an artist uses colors, creating potency and meaning with immediate contrasts. In her bright kitchen, Alison listens to Kate's voice-- a dark thread in a dark hole --and realizes that her friend is in trouble. These subtle details amplify the seeming contradictions in larger events: a normal school day after madness at home; a child parenting a parent; the past reappearing in the present. And then there's the hope that surfaces after anguish: There was no reason that I couldn't live this way, says Alison about her twisted spine. Like any imperfect but plausible thing, a tree growing around a telephone pole. A tender, unflinching, and distinctive view of how girls grow up. GillianEngberg. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Aurelie Sheehan is director of the creative writing program at the University of Arizona. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.