Squashed explores several social issues especially pertinent to teens. The difficulties between Ellie and her father are typical at some stage of life for most parent-child relationships, and Bauer is fair in revealing the rights and wrongs on both sides of the issues. Further problems are explored in Ellie's one-parent family situation. In this relationship, Bauer explores the delicate balance that must be wrought between remembering and moving on after the loss of a loved one. She also calls attention to the fact that some children feel the need to fill the space created by the absence of one parent in an attempt to relieve the sorrow and maintain a semblance of normality in family life. Ellie demonstrates this need by cooking and caring for her father and her cousin Richard, who also lives in a oneparent family.

Bauer further provides a model for help in...