Saving Lenny - Softcover

Margaret Willey is the author of award-winning young adult novels and picture books. She is also a frequent essayist and lecturer on issues that affect young women. She lives in Grand Haven, Michigan.

Grade 10-12-- A cautionary tale in which Jesse Davis and Lenny Stevens, two overachieving high-school seniors, fall in love and declare their independence from their parents' expectations. As fall approaches they agree to forgo college and, unbeknownst to their parents, set up housekeeping in an isolated woodlands cottage. Their life together starts well, as the young people easily find jobs and delight in their newfound autonomy. But as winter approaches, Lenny's cyclical depression reappears. He loses his job and grows possessive of Jesse, until he traps her in the web of his own destructive illness. It is finally up to Jesse's best friend, Kay, to save the pair from their misery. Jesse and her disapproving friend tell the story in alternating chapters, with Kay's narrative giving perspective to the lovers' story. From an adult perspective, the novel's biggest flaw is the assumption that Jesse and Lenny could prevent their overprotective parents from discovering their menage. Additionally, the characters are not explored beyond Lenny's depression and Jesse's dogged attempts to help him. Readers must accept on faith qualities attributed to them; for example, Jesse's intelligence and Lenny's athletic prowess. While the manner in which Jesse is drawn into Lenny's illness is convincing, the novel lacks enough well-observed detail to render its world of teenage love and obsession with complete authenticity. --James Witham, Lexington Public Library, KY
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