Kat Got Your Tongue - Hardcover

Lee Weatherly grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. She lives with her husband in Hampshire, England, surrounded by teetering mountains of books and CDz. A writer for children and teenagers, she also runs a small writing consulatancy called Flying Frog, as well as workshop programmes for new writers. www.leeweatherly.com

Grade 7–9—This novel begins with a bang, literally. Kathy—or Kat, as she comes to be known—has just been hit by a car. Though she is physically fine, she discovers that she has lost her memory completely. Her mother, her mother's boyfriend, her friends, and even her own appearance are strange and unsettling to her. More bizarre is the revelation that Kat has done something horribly wrong that has caused her not only to earn outcast status at school, but also to attract the ire and threats of the small group of girls whom Kat's mother claims are her friends. The story is told in the first-person and alternates Kat's narration with details from the past that she had been recording in a journal prior to the accident. Weatherly does a good job of differentiating between the Kat of the present and Kathy of the past. As readers, along with Kat, follow the story of her unknown past, an element of suspense creeps into the plot and readers are asked to consider the ultimate mystery: who any of us really are. While the use of amnesia as a plot device is reminiscent of many soap operas, readers are given cause to examine this disability a bit further and consider it, as Kat's grandmother urges her to do, something of a gift. "'But think about it,' Nana says, 'you're seeing life in a way few people ever get to—completely unencumbered by all the baggage we normally carry. New, fresh; like you've only just been born.'"—Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston
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