Angry when he sees the girl he likes meeting another boy at Blackwater River, thirteen-year-old Brodie engages in some ill-considered horseplay. Both Pauline and Otis drown, and Brodie soon begins receiving mysterious messages urging him to confess. Similar in plot and theme to Marion Dane Bauer's On My Honor, the book effectively explores issues of honesty and personal responsibility.

PLB 0-06-027843-9 In an unusually weak story from the prolific Bunting, a teenager wavers between staying silent and confessing his responsibility for a half-serious prank that results in two deaths. Offended at finding a girl on whom he had pinned some summer dreams making out with another boy, Brodie sneaks up to startle them, then watches in horror as they fall into the river and are swept away. His desperate effort to save them makes him an instant local celebrity. Injured, half drowned himself and sedated by the doctor, he has no chance to set the record straight at first, and as time goes by, the prospect of telling the truth becomes harder to contemplate. In the meantime, Alex, a visiting cousin who knows the truth, trumpets Brodie's heroism for reasons of his own, while there is evidence of a mysterious witness to the tragedy. With the support of a loyal friend and loving parents, Brodie finds the strength to come clean, but since he has been presented as a stable, right-thinking character, his decision is never really in doubt. While Bunting hints at the price Brodie will have to pay for holding back, the story ends before the boom actually falls. Ingrid Tomey makes the horns of a similar dilemma much sharper in Nobody Else Has To Know (p. 890), while Marion Dane Bauer, of course, charted a more subtle route in On My Honor (1986). (Fiction. 10-12)

Gr 5-8-"TELL." When 13-year-old Brodie reads the note, he realizes that someone knows his terrible secret. He didn't intend for anything bad to happen; he'd only planned to teach his pesky cousin Alex how to swim. But when the two arrive at the swimming hole, a dammed-up part of the dangerous Blackwater River, they find Pauline and Otis already there, sunning on a large rock. Brodie has a crush on Pauline and is jealous of the older boy. He quietly swims over to the rock and starts to pull her into the water. Otis pulls back and the screaming girl is stuck in the middle like a wishbone. When Brodie lets go, the other two teenagers fall backward into the swiftly rushing river. He jumps in the water to try to save them, but the current is too strong and he must be rescued. Pauline and Otis drown and Brodie is hailed a hero, especially when Alex tells his own trumped-up version of the story. Brodie means to be honest, but because of his injuries and the reactions of others, he finds he cannot tell the real story. How long-and how safely-can he keep his secret? Similar in plot to Marion Dane Bauer's On My Honor (Clarion, 1986), Bunting's more complex novel is an exciting blend of physical and psychological action and conflict as Brodie is caught in a web of deceit, as guilt and fear overcome his desire to tell the truth. The novel also focuses on friendship, family, and forgiveness as Brodie's friend Hannah helps him admit his responsibility in the accident. An engrossing tale with likable, realistic characters.-Janet Hilbun, formerly at Sam Houston Middle School, Garland, TX Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.