Marianne is growing up in a singleparent home. Ure portrays Mrs. Fenton as a hard-working parent attempting to provide a stable and loving home for her daughter.

Physical handicaps are still a fact of life in today's society. Ure has treated the handicap of blindness with sensitivity. Through Marianne, the reader is able to ask questions he or she might hesitate to ask otherwise. Ure's main characters are gracious towards Abe, treating him with the same respect and dignity that is due anyone, regardless of physical conditions or station in life.

Only Peter, true to his character, is a little irreverent towards Abe. Ure paints a realistic picture of life for a blind person and how he or she is perceived by others; she does a good job of developing the challenges a blind person encounters in search of a balance between independence and dependence, while...