Someone to Love

by Francess Lin Lantz

Unsure about how to feel when her parents decide to adopt a baby, fifteen-year-old Sara meets Iris, a young pregnant teenager to whom she becomes very close, which cause disastrous and unexpected events to occur. Reprint.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Francess Lin Lantz (b. August 27, 1952, Trenton, New Jersey — d. November 22, 2004, Santa Barbara, California) was an American children's librarian turned fiction writer, whose fan base was mostly preteen and teenaged girls.

For more than two decades, Lantz wrote more than 30 books, including several juvenile bestsellers. She won the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults award for her 1997 romance, Someone to Love. Stepsister from Planet Weird (Random House, 1996) was made into a Disney Channel television movie in 2000.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Lantz was raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She initially aspired to become a rock musician and composer. She graduated in 1974 from Dickinson College (in Pennsylvania) and from Simmons College (in Boston) in 1975, where she earned a master's degree in library sciences.

She died in Santa Barbara, California in 2004 following a five years long battle with ovarian cancer; she was 52 years old.

Reviews

[Sadie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someone to Love is a really good book. It is about a girl, Sara, who's family is adopting. Sara has different ideas of how the adoption should go than her parents. When Sara is faced with a difficult dissicion, she has to decide what to do to help the birth mother and a friend in need.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is an interesting mix of relatable teen angst and over-the-top teen drama.

So much of what Sara was going through felt really real. And I loved the vegetarian activism and the talk of race and class and environmentalism. But I thought it was hilarious and hypocritical how Cody was an "eco-dweeb" or something. I'm pretty sure the venn diagram of Sierra Club members and vegetarians has a pretty big over lap. And Sara's like, "he's going hiking to try to see some animal he could just see in a zoo." Ha! A zoo? And you say you're for animal rights?

And the way she talked to her parents! Hoo-boy! The self-righteous gall. I thought it was pretty incredible the way she tried to convince Iris, "You don't need to learn about business! Just start selling your stuff to stores in LA!" How does a 15-year-old have this much ignorant confidence? And also, "We're going to raise your baby!" Hello? Iris literally just said that she was not going to raise her baby. Sara is not a very good listener. But, teen angst--I tried to go with it for the sake of the story.

Three stars for the surprisingly great lines, like this one: "They're probably worried I'll turn her into a radical feminist vegetarian who won't take any of their elitist crap" (87). Just change that to vegan and it's still so applicable.

[Nevvy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, but a bit predictable. The main character felt very real, but the way Iris just went along with whatever Sara said up until the end was kind of breaking my suspension of disbelief. However, given that I was a little older than the book's intended age group when I read it was probably why I found that hard to believe. An 11-15 year old would probably relate to Sara more than I did, since I was almost seventeen at the time and found her fairly immature and a bit annoying.

[Brittany Soncek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe I finally found this book! I read it in 7th grade and have been looking for it ever since! I love the authors style of writing and the obstacals the main character has to go through! As I was re-reading it I never rememberd so much about a book then any other book that i have re-read! It was amazing!

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really remember reading this book, I just remember I loved it!