I do not read many YA novels but for Atty Peale, an exception must be made. Atty has a sincere, intelligent, honest voice that commands attention.
Though intelligent and precocious, she has had a difficult and complicated life; her mother was a dreamer, fantasist, who went around town in a Starfleet uniform and committed suicide when Atty was little. Her father is a local defense attorney now married to a black magazine journalist. Atty has a stepbrother, Martinez.
In the first book, Atty represents a condemned dog and saves his life. In the second she discovers the truth about a murder for which the wrong man was arrested. The human case may be the exception. Atty is at heart an animal rights activist. When this novel opens, she is presenting to the Strudwick County Commission a plan to phase out animal euthanasia at the shelter.
She knows it will be a process, involving adoption, sterilization, even temporary foster care, and has a 100 page, multi-year plan. Of course, the commission balks and Atty is required to adjust the plan with the county attorney, Backsley Graddoch, now a friend and ally. Change comes slowly in Houmahatchee, Alabama.
And, Atty is different, a special kind of fish out of water. Usually the fish is a Yankee come south or a farm boy in the city; but Atty is an indigenous fish, living in the water she has always lived in, but as she tells us, “I am not very good at being Southern. Football bores me. I’ve never called Dad ‘sir’ and I don’t think I could without laughing. I don’t have any opinions about barbecue. If you don’t eat meat, barbecue is just a sauce.”
Atticus T. Peale is also not a Christian, although she is deeply spiritual, which is at the heart of this novel. She and her friend Reagan attend the county fair. She avoids the nausea-producing rides but has amusing chats with the World’s Smallest Woman who tells her fortune, and the movie star look-alike, Elizabeth Tavoris.
Then she meets Emory. Emory is probably 14, with thick, blonde hair, rough hands, dirty jeans and work boots and a red flannel shirt. He wins her a stuffed bear. Mutual love is instantaneous. They kiss , her first. Emory is not a typical high school boy who shouts “dumb stuff like ‘PURPLE DEVILS RULE!’ . . . from time to time.”
But there is a problem. Alas, his family owns and manages the elephant, Elizabeth. They love her and care for her but Atty just knows the elephant is sad, is suffering. She can see it in her eyes. They go to court. Granted that elephants have a superior intelligence and deep feelings, but do they have an eternal soul?
And relationships: should Atty compromise her beliefs and stay with Emory? Can men ever change? Should we ask them to?
