CAT BAUER

2:45 P.M.
Inisde my purse, my cell phone starts playing the opening chords to "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Nine has always been my favorite number, and I realize that there are a lot of number nines in my life today: It is October 9th, John Lennon's birthday. It has been nine months since Beatrice Snow first called me. It takes nine months to make a baby...

O, Thou, at the height of heaven,
focus Your light within us and make it useful
so that we can fulfill our true purpose.
Your domain approaches.
Let Your will be done in earth which is material and dense
just as it is in heaven and all that vibrates.

Give us this day Your divine sustenance.
Guide us in our struggle
to recognize and correct the debts that bind us,
as we recognize and release the debts of others.
May we also know our strengths.
Let us not be lost when we experience the darkness
but let our love lead us to Your great light.
Deliver us from evil.

For You are the eternal star of creation.

Amen.

Sixteen-year-old Harley Columba knows that October 9th won't be an ordinary day. ...

At 8:00 a.m., she stands on the pier and gazes at the Statue of Liberty, framed by the morning sun and the fading moon. This is the day her first art exhibit opens in a gallery in New York City. The day Harley and her friends will visit the Broadway set designed by her newfound father, the famous Sean Shanahan. The day she returns to her hometown, Lenape Lakes, New Jersey, in stifling suburbia -- with Sean, who hasn't been back for fourteen years.

The fact that it's the ninth also means that she's five days late. She and Evan were careless that one time, and she could be about to make a mess of her life. October 9th -- Harley's ninth -- promises to be a monumental day as Harley reexamines herself as an artist, a girlfriend, a daughter, and a person.

In this second novel by award-winning author Cat Bauer, the unforgettable Harley Columba returns with a tough and touching story of the way life can change so unexpectedly -- in a single day.

This authentic story will open your mind and touch your heart
July 1, 2007
By Janet Zarem

The one word that springs to mind when I think of Cat Bauer's books--both "Harley, Like a Person" and this sequel, "Harley's Ninth"--is "authentic." The characters are so human, so real, that they remain with the reader long after the last page is finished. And even more impressive, the books are emotionally authentic, which is to say "trustworthy." You can trust that Harley is a real teenaged girl, one who makes mistakes in judgment and who struggles with the conflicting lures of boyfriends (and sex) and developing her unexpected strength as a painter and a person in her own right. Harley's psychologically damaged mother, Peppy, and her abusive, alcoholic stepfather, Roger, are not pretty. But if you have ever known anyone like them, you know they ring true. Likewise her birth father, Sean, is achingly, frustratingly, touchingly genuine.

And while I'm at it, I'd like to say that none of the emotional or other abuse, or sex, in either of these books is exploitative or unnecessarily graphic. Ms. Bauer can write. She approaches sensitive material with an artist's eye. Her object is not to shock, but to illuminate. Here is Harley describing her aggressively oppressive home: "The atmosphere in my house in Lenape was a barrier that blocked access to the part of me that paints. My mother, Peppy, was a constant drizzle. My stepfather, Roger, was a thunderstorm. The only sunshine was my little sister, Lily: my brother, Bean, was more tornado than sibling. It was not possible to work with the weather in that house."

Both books also honor what I can only call the "spiritual" in life, the unseen forces of creativity that we channel if we are willing to, as well as the nearly incredible, fortuitous coincidences (I have experienced my share) that make us wonder if there's more to life than the five senses can convey. As exemplified by Mrs. Tuttle, Father Lorenzo, Sofia, and Joe the cab driver, they remind us that respect and love go a long way towards nurturing those who may be unconventional, lonely, and needing to express themselves in the face of other forces that would dominate and sap them.

One final observation: effortlessly, these books introduce teens to art, live theater, classical music and European culture, as represented by Venice, Italy. Teens who read them may try some Bach on their iPods.

The "Harleys" are the kind of books that send teens dashing to the computer or cell phone (or even an old-fashioned desk) to write the author that at last they feel understood, known, valued. And I'll bet that Ms. Bauer hears from both girls and boys. And frankly, like many other outstanding books for teens, they make excellent reading for adults, too. May they find their way into more and more open hands and hearts.

Janet Zarem is a freelance writer (NY Times Sunday Book Review, etc.) and Former Manager of Dutton's Books Children's Department

HARLEY'S NINTH
By Cat Bauer
Alfred A. Knopf
The Horn Book Magazine; circ: 15,000
March/April 2007

This sequel to Harley, Like a Person (rev.5/00) follows sixteen-year-old Harley during one momentous day. Having discovered her birth father, Sean, in the first novel, Harley is freed from her dysfunctional parents in suburban New Jersey. She now lives with Sean in New York City, where she has time and space to paint. On Saturday, October 9, Harley will have her first gallery show, survive a trip to her hometown, and find out whether she's pregnant. ("I'll pull out," her boyfriend Evan had promised just weeks before, and now she's five days late.) Harley's excitement about the gallery opening is mixed with worries about her missed period, but the novel's tone remains upbeat. Her drugstore trip for the pregnancy test is both funny and authentically awkward. As in the first novel, an unexpected family revelation seems a bit too unlikely, but the main focus, Harley's emotional life, rings true. Though family and even Evan may disappoint her, Harley has faith in herself. Bauer plays heavily on the theme of artistic creation as birth: Harley's winning entry for the "Life Never Stops" competition is a painting of a pregnant angel above a pregnant girl, which took her nine months to create and "was a long labor and a difficult birth." Given Harley's situation, however, the obvious metaphor fits well, nearly reflecting Harley's embrace of both life and art. L.A.

VOYA
Harley Columba first appeared in Harley, Like a Person (Winslow, 2000/VOYA October 2000) where readers were introduced to her very difficult family life--her alcoholic stepfather, her apathetic mother, and her sweet but damaged siblings. Harley is sixteen years old in this sequel, and her life has changed dramatically. She is living with her biological father in New York, she has escaped the torment of her home life and the small town where everyone knows everything about everybody, and she is successfully pursuing her art. Harley still has her share of issues with which to deal. She is not sure where she stands with her father, and she might be pregnant. The bright spot is that Harley's artwork has been chosen for a grand gallery display that highlights a young artist each month, and this opportunity may win her the chance to visit Italy to display her art there. That is, of course, if she can make it to the gallery opening at all after blurting the news of her possible pregnancy to her boyfriend and leaving herself stranded. All this drama should lead to a third book, but one hopes that Bauer will not make readers wait another six years. Harley is a character to whom different kinds of teens can relate on many different levels. Harley's foibles are realistic, and although the story ends somewhat idyllically, it is thoroughly satisfying. This book is a great recommendation for teens who enjoy Joan Bauer's novel--but want a little more edge.

KLIATT
On October 9th, Harley's art exhibit goes up in a gallery in New York. It should be the most exciting time of her life, but Harley thinks she might be pregnant, and that would change everything. In this sequel to Harley, Like a Person, Bauer takes us through just one day in the life of Harley Columba. Raise by an abusive stepfather in New Jersey, Harley is now living with her biological father in New York City. Named one of Beatrice Snow's Most Promising Young Artists, she is also in a serious relationship with a young musician. One afternoon they are not careful about sex and now Harley spends the day with an (sic) pregnancy test in her purse, trying to decide what the future will bring. The events of the day take us through Harley's life, through the family trauma of finding out that her best friend was really a half sister, and through the excitement of having her artwork exhibited in the city. Her father, a Tony Award-winning set designer, also faces down some of his own demons as he returns to New Jersey with Harley to visit his ailing mother. The novel ends with two journalistic accounts of the day--her father's opening on Broadway and Harley's opening in the art gallery. The sexual description and other adult situations make this a novel for high school readers, and those YAs will find some down-to-earth values amidst the NYC glamour and culture.