The prose in this book is very good and honest without being melodramatic. I would definitely recommend it. ( )

Having grown up in Lynn Valley and having had Lynn Canyon as my backyard, this book threw me back to my teenage years. The main character is dealing with the usual high school dilemmas, as well as the unexpected death of her mother. ( )

1999’s CLA Young Adult Canadian Book Award winner Alone at Ninety Foot, is a bitter-sweet story of 14-year-old Pamela who struggles to make sense of her mother’s suicide, her father’s loneliness, and her own adolescent emotional confusion amidst the backdrop of Ninety Foot, the gorge at Lynn Canyon Creek Park. Author Holubitsky gives Pamela an authentic introspective voice, filled with the insecurity, longing, and selfishness that plagues young people from puberty and into the adult life. The gorge is a powerful literal and metaphorical stand-in in for the immensity of life that threatens to knock us over at a young age and Holubitsky’s writing conveys this well. Alone at Ninety Foot is real without being overdramatic. Friends, loss, first love, disappointment, grief, and suicide flow out of this excellent novel for young teens. Other notable awards: IODE Violet Downey Book Award Winner; Best Book for Young Adults-American Library Association; New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age; Best Books for Young Adults-teacher Librarian Magazine. Also recommend B. Brenna’s Wild Orchid (2006). ( )