Carolyn Coman writes books in which young adults face difficult choices in their lives and then deal with the consequences of those choices. In works ranging from the National Book Award-nominated Many Stones to the Newbery Honor Book What Jamie Saw, Coman explores the darker side of growing up: dealing with a parent's abandonment through death in Tell Me Everything, child abuse by a stepparent in What Jamie Saw, sibling incest in Bee and Jacky, and a sister's death during a political assassination in Many Stones. Many of her main characters are damaged in some way; some have been the victims of abuse or neglect, while others, driven by their inner demons, inflict abuse on those they love. "As with the people in my life," Coman wrote in an online essay posted to the Front Street Books Web site, "some characters are easier to know and love than...