It shows you how you should love your parents because you never have enough time with them. I would have liked it to be a little longer with more detail. I liked the cover and the title. I thought it looked intense - I was right. AHS/JA

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

A mother on life-support. A father who keeps pretending that his wife will get better. A young man, torn between doing what is right and taking the easier path of least resistance.

Alma Fullerton paints the story of one family's turmoil in WALKING ON GLASS, a short tale told in free verse. When one teen arrives home one day in June, he finds his mother near death after an attempted suicide. Although he saves her life, the only thing keeping her tethered to this world are the wires and equipment forcing her to take each breath as she lies in a hospital bed.

"Mom's mood swings always coincided with whatever Dad and I did.
Up and down.
Up and down.
Pulling our strings, like big yo-yos.
And even now, when she can't move or talk, she's still pulling those strings."

As the teen's father lives in a world of denial, as the teen himself realizes that his best friend's life of crime and anger is beginning to rub off on him, he realizes that if there is ever to be an end to the torment he suffers, the decision will have to be his alone. As he struggles to learn why his mother wanted to die, as he rages with anger over his father's lack of acceptance, and as he faces the knowledge that life will never be the same, we fight the fight right along with him.

Ms. Fullerton has written a heartrending, emotional story that will stay with you long after you turn the last page. ( )

I'm always amazed at how much can be said in so few words when I read one of these novels in verse. I had to re-read the ending to be sure I understood what the author was saying. I think the kids will like this depressing, sad, disturbing book. ( )

What do you do when you catch your mother in the act of killing herself? What is life like when your mother is on life support, and you know she will never get better? ( )