Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The gossipy, scandal-bait tone of the title of this British import is cunningly deceptive in more ways than one: Amelia O'Donohue is not the central concern of the novel, her virginity is never really at issue, and the novel is not the typical catty [End Page 233] chick-lit that the title might suggest. Rather, the plot centers on Rachel Ross, a Scottish girl who has just started at a new boarding school. There quiet, solitary Rachel becomes the person that everyone confides in, but she also receives more than her share of bullying. She's completely stunned, however, when she finds a newly delivered baby in a hall closet, and she tries, with her knowledge of school secrets, to discover whose baby it is while hiding the infant from the staff. Originally Rachel's prime suspect, Amelia O'Donohue ends up joining Rachel's sleuthing, and together the girls try to sort out which student is keeping this terrible secret, maybe even from herself. Readers will be completely caught off-guard by the baby, but they will quickly be able to sort through clues that have been laid all along as to the identity of the baby's mother, and the intense and secretive atmosphere of the boarding school is effectively conveyed. The book suffers from strained realism at times, though, especially in the tidy resolution, which includes the complete support of the new mother's parents and friends and a boy who likes her enough to take it all in stride. Still, the detached and oddly focused emotional state of Rachel is credibly portrayed throughout, especially when retroactively considered. Readers who've ever wondered how in the world someone could not know she was pregnant will come away with a reasonable picture of how such denial might indeed be possible.