It's not hard to see why Norma Fox Mazer has found a place among the most popular writers for young adults these days. At her best, Mazer can cut right to the bone of teenage troubles and then show us how the wounds will heal. She can set down the everyday scenes of her characters' lives in images that are scalpel-sharp. In Mazer's books, we find lovers who cheat and fathers who cry. We find elephant jokes and pink champagne. We find college students who live in apartments which smell of cats and we find high school kids who walk through corridors which smell of "lysol, oregano (pizza for lunch again) and cigarette smoke." What's apparent throughout all of this is that Mazer has taken great care to get to know the world she writes about. She delves into the very heart of it with a sure and...