Morning in a Different Place - Hardcover

Mary Ann McGuigan was born in the Bronx, New York, to a large Irish Catholic family. A graduate of St. Peter’s College in New Jersey, she taught English for eight years. Her short stories and essays for adults have appeared in literary magazines and other publications, including the New York Times. Her first young adult novel, Cloud Dancer, was named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and her second, Where You Belong, was a National Book Award finalist. She lives in Metuchen, New Jersey.

Grade 7–9—Fiona O'Doherty, 14, describes her complicated, sometimes painful life in the Bronx in 1963. Her alcoholic, abusive father has caused her mom to move the family into a small, crowded apartment with relatives and then, when things don't work out, back with him and more abuse. Fiona's mother does not approve of her friendship with Yolanda, an African-American girl. Each teen feels like an outsider except when they are together. One is plagued by racism and the other, by the instability of her dysfunctional family. Ultimately, Yolanda, a take-action person, convinces Fiona to stop going along with things and find a way to stand up to her father. Maintaining their friendship is sometimes difficult, especially for Fiona, who is enticed by the popular white girls in school when they start to pay attention to her because of her friendship with David Silverman. Unfortunately, she joins her new friends in excluding Yolanda, rationalizing her feelings of guilt. McGuigan has created rich characters and tackles several uncomfortable social issues. At times the integration of these issues is a bit heavy-handed. Fiona's voice reverberates through a range of emotional highs and lows in this story of friendship, loyalty, trust, racism, and coping that culminates with the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Like Shana Burg's A Thousand Never Evers (Delacorte, 2008), the novel offers insight into a turbulent era.—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ
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