Allegedly

Mary Addison, a teenage girl trying to survive the violence and threats in and out of her group home, is trying to piece together the details of a murder that she was blamed for. As the details of this crime are gradually exposed throughout the story, readers can begin to draw their own conclusions while learning about Mary’s mother’s mental health issues, Mary’s daily life full of the constant threat of violence, the inadequate legal representation for those living in poverty, and the mysteries surrounding the murder. Appropriate for senior students, the themes of identity, teenage angst, struggle, and resilience can be explored in this novel in the context of the law and of human psychology. This novel can be used to broach these issues in a literary circle, as a stand-alone unit, or represented in the form of a mock trial in the classroom.