What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Title: What I Saw and How I Lied
Author: Judy Blundell

Type: Audio Book (Unabridged) Young Adult Novel
Narrator: Catalin Greer
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult
Series: No
Copyright: 2009 (2008 printed edition)

Publisher:  Scholastic Audio
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Summary:
It is right after World War II and Evie Spooner and her mother Beverly are waiting for Joe to come back from the war. They are living with his mother and feel the strain. When Joe returns he starts a business selling appliances. On what seems to be a whim Joe takes the family on a vacation to Palm Beach, Florida. At first they are very excited and the drive is fun but as the temperature rises so does the tension in the car. Bev and Evie do not ask or talk about the war with Joe and there is much they do not know about him. Staying at the only open hotel in Palm Beach they meet Arlene and Tom Grayson who they become friends with. Tom and Joe start to form a shady business deal for buying the hotel they are staying in and Arlene helps Evie start to grow up by buying her clothes that are for a young woman not a girl. Also, staying at the hotel is Peter Coleridge, someone who had served with Joe in the war. Joe has a clear dislike for Peter but it isn't clear why. Evie finds Peter kind, handsome and finds herself with a crush, which she calls love. What follows leads to betray and a taking of sides. Evie must choice what lies to tell and who to betray.

Feelings:
A National Book Award Winner in young adult this book is told in first person (Something I have been noticing, recently is first person narratives. I thought I read only third person. Turns out I was wrong.) from the point-of-view of a 15 year old girl. Evie wants so much to be an adult and everyone is trying to hold her back. This is a coming-of-age novel with a mystery twist. I'm not sure that the mystery is ever really solved at the end because Evie isn't sure what happened. She does grow up in the process and the change in the character is genuine and well worth reading the book to see. In the south after the war Evie does not see the change that she would have expected and racism is present. This bothers her and she doesn't see why there are these kind of rules. She is innocent in a way that draws the reader in and as she looses that innocence through life experiences and her observations of what is happening around her she begins to grow up. The only problem is that once you grow up you can't go back. The setting for the book was good and I enjoyed the post war atmosphere of plenty. While this is definitely a story told from the point-of-view of a teenager there isn't as much dwelling on girly things as one would expect. I would recommend this book to individuals who like a good coming-of-age novel and a bit of mystery mixed in.