Mazer, Norma Fox. Girlhearts. HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 0-688-06866-9. $15.89. 210 pp. A 5+ FI Reviewed by Janet Francis When Sarabeth’s mother dies without warning, she is left in an almost indescribable loneliness, an “alone without an ending.” Sarabeth is no stranger to loneliness, though. Before her death, her mother had closed their doors to all outside contacts, and although Sarabeth knows she had family in Hinchville, she’s never met them-she and her mother had never needed them. Now that her mother is gone, Sarabeth’s friends seem willing to take her in, but the arrangements just don’t work out. What happens when a nonconformist, make-the world-do hippie leaves behind a child who has not yet learned to choose her own lifestyle? Sarabeth is the sole narrator of this tautly written tale, which serves as a warning to those professing to believe in “whatever makes you happy.”
