Hewett, Lorri. Lives of Our Own. Dutton, 1998. ISBN 0-525-45959-6. $15.99. 214 pp. B 8+ FI Reviewed by Leah Hanson Because of her parents' divorce, Shawna Riley has been uprooted from the only life she has ever known and transplanted to Dessina, Georgia, the small town where her father grew up. Dessina seems to be miles and years away from the rest of the world. Shawna is quite surprised by the enduring racial tensions that still exist there. Then, when she writes an editorial for the school newspaper and speaks out against the school's traditional white-students-only Old South Ball, she finds herself face-to-face with racism directed at herself. The popular students at school are outspoken in their anger at Shawna, especially Kari Lang. And yet, when the two girls discover that their parents used to be friends in high school, an odd sort of friendship forms between Shawna and Kari. After discovering a mysterious absence of their parents' photographs in the old school yearbooks and hearing nothing but silence from their parents about their relationship, Shawna and Kari set off on a mission to discover the past, with the hopes of understanding their own uncertain futures. Chapter by chapter, Lives of Our Own is told by both Shawna and Kari; first we hear one girl's voice, then the other's. Such a format allows the reader to see the events of the story from multiple perspectives and adds deeper meaning to the theme of the search for self-identity. As the story progresses, we realize that though the ethnicity of the girls differs, their teenage confusion and longing for acceptance are things they share. Hewett effectively deals with the issue of racism, while portraying hope that true friendship and love can cross racial boundaries.
