Reviews: (by author)

Bryant, Jen. The Trial. New York: Random House, 2004. $14.95. ISBN 0-375-82752-8.   166 pp.

This novel is a highly creative response to young Katie Leigh Flynn's thoughts and emotions as they unravel through the trial of the decade. Bruno Richard Hauptmann is being tried for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's baby boy, Katie has an opportunity to act as her uncle's journalism assistant. As the trial unfolds and evidence seems shaky at best, Katie evaluates her feelings toward the defendant, toward the Lindbergh family, to the sudden excitement in her normally sleepy town, and to her friend Mike's own dysfunctional family. The novel is written in the form of free verse poetry, and is a successful combination of non-fiction and fiction as the trial might have been viewed through the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl.

Recommended
Holly Boland, May 2004

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