Blind Faith

by Ellen Wittlinger

Book Overview

"I might as well tell you before you hear it someplace else... My mother is dying. She has leukemia and she came here to die." Nathan and his adorable little sister just moved in across the street... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416902732
• ISBN13: 9781416902737
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Recommend It

I'm not good at summarizing so I'm not but Blind Faith is really good. The plot of the book is about something that I've never read about before, I'm pretty sure it's very rare but it is very good. It's sad but not extremely (I didn't cry or anything) and I finished it in just a few days (which is good for me since I don't have much time on my hands) RECOMMEND IT!!

A Good Read

Blind Faith was a good book. Funny, sad, and entertianing. Definitly somthing I would suggest to someone looking for something nice to read in their spare time.

One of the best teen books EVER!

Blind Faith, by Ellen Wittlinger is without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read. It follows the life of Liz Scattergood after the death of her grandmother, Bunny. Liz encounters many obstacles including her mother's obsession with a Spiritualist church, her neighbor's two grandchildren moving in, and her parents constant fighting. Nathan, the new kid next door, forms an unlikly bond with Liz, and together, they heal eachother's pain. I would recomend this book to anyone, not just teenagers; it teaches amazing lessons everyone should know!!!!

A moving tale of loss and new beginnings

Award-winning author Ellen Wittlinger is known for her emotional and poignant teen novels like SANDPIPER and Printz Honor Book HARD LOVE. In her latest effort, BLIND FAITH, she delivers yet again with a tale of loss and new beginnings. When 15-year old Liz Scattergood's grandmother Bunny dies, Liz's mother falls into a depression. People always said that Liz's mom and Bunny were "more like sisters or best friends than mother and daughter," which makes Liz feel strange. How come she isn't like this with her own mother? Her mother is so depressed over the loss of Bunny that she won't get out of bed or work on her pottery in the studio. Then one day, she announces she's going to the Singing Creek Spiritualist Church to "contact Bunny." Liz's father, an atheist, isn't thrilled about the idea, but Liz's mother goes, and only then does her life return to normal. She gets out of bed. She works on her pottery. And now, she goes to the Spiritualist Church every week. Although Liz isn't sure what she thinks of the spiritualists, she agrees to go with her mother and hopes that maybe they will bond over their experience of contacting Bunny. But this just pushes Liz's father away and causes more of a rift within the family. While Liz is dealing with her own chaos, she becomes entangled with the lives of the new neighbors: Nathan, a boy her age, and Courtney, his younger sister. Nathan, Courtney, and their mother Lily have just moved in with their grandmother, the old lady who lives across the street and who Liz calls Crabby. But as Liz gets to know Nathan, she learns that he has problems too. His mother has a terminal disease and she might die. Plus, everyone's keeping it a secret from Courtney because she's too young to understand. As Nathan and Liz confide in each other about their problems, they become close and a tender friendship and romance emerge. Ellen Wittlinger is a wonderful writer who has an amazing ability to portray realistic teens in difficult situations. She gets right to the root of emotional issues and twists them in a way that readers can relate and sympathize deeply with the characters. Even though BLIND FAITH deals with the topic of death, there are many uplifting moments in this story. --- Reviewed by Kristi Olson

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

It was bad enough when fifteen-year-old Liz Scattergood's grandmother, Bunny, died. It's even worse now that her mother seems to have gone crazy. For weeks her mom wouldn't get out of bed, wouldn't eat dinner with Liz and her father, wouldn't even brush her hair. Although Liz understands that her mother and Bunny had a special bond, were more like sisters, in fact, than mother and daughter, Liz doesn't understand the extreme depression. That was almost preferable, though, to what happens when her mother snaps out of her funk and finally leaves the darkened comfort of her bedroom. Because now she's found religion--or, in this case, Spiritualism, where the congregation and leaders believe they can communicate with the spirits of the dead. After her mom's first visit to Singing Creek, the Spiritualist Church, she comes home acting alive for the first time in weeks. Liz is curious enough to agree to accompany her the following Saturday, but Liz's dad is none too pleased with the developments. For him, religion is filled with hypocrites and fools, and the crazies that attend Singing Creek are the worst of the lot--they hold out hope to those who have lost someone they love, convincing them that they can really "talk" to the dearly departed's spirit. For Liz, these new arguments of her parent's is shaking up her once comfortable life. Added to that is the new family who has moved in across the street. There's Courtney, [...]and a total joy, and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who always seems so angry. Their mother, Lily, is dying of leukemia and has come home to spend her final days with her mother, dubbed by Liz as Mrs. Crabby. As Liz enters into a tenuous friendship with Nathan bordering on a first love, and takes Courtney under her wing, she's confused by her father's anger, her mother's obsession with communicating with her dead mother, and the fact that life in Tobias isn't as calm and easy as she'd always believed it to be. Ms. Wittlinger has penned a beautiful story in BLIND FAITH. This is the story of hope and faith, of love and loss, of life and death. As Liz fights to understand why she doesn't have the same type of bond with her mom that her mother had with Bunny, as Nathan and Courtney learn to live without their mother, and as everyone involved learns how important it is to always have hope, these two families will be forever entwined. A very heartfelt, tender story, you won't go wrong reading BLIND FAITH.