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Bardi, Abby.
BOOK OF FRED
Washington Square Press, 2001
IL AD
ISBN 0743411935
Mary Fred Anderson has been raised in an isolated fundamentalist religious cult that believes the end of the world is near.  She’s never watched TV, never been to school, or never read books other than religious ones.  Suddenly, at the age of 15, her parents are sent to jail due to the deaths of two of her younger brothers and she is sent to live with a foster family in Washington, DC.  Soon, Mary Fred finds herself torn between the beliefs of her cult and all of the fascinating things she's discovering with her new “family -- including daytime TV and a transsexual neighbor.  As she adjusts to her new life, she has a positive influence on the lives of her new family and brings them all closer.  Just as she seems to be adjusting to enjoy her new life, an act of violence disrupts her new family and causes her to confront the way she was raised.  Without warning, her birth mother returns and takes her to live in a new cult; but will Mary Fred want to stay with her mother or return to her foster family?
Prepared by: Janet Kenney  for South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees 2005
SUBJECTS:     Teenagers -- Fiction.
                        Suburban life -- Fiction.
                        Religious fundamentalism -- Fiction.
                        Foster home care -- Fiction.
                        Women librarians -- Fiction.
                        Washington -- Suburban Area -- Fiction.
                        Eccentrics and eccentricities -- Fiction.
                        Humorous fiction.

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