This is an amazing novel, with a real life plotline. it twist and turns through the life of 14 year old Claire and makes me feel as if I'm there. This is one of the only books I know that has the power to make me cry again and again.

I have never been a very consistant reader but this year for a book report in my English class, I decided to read the book Janey's Girl. I have never been so moved by anything that I have read in my life! Clarissa is an amazing girl, going through changes, figuring out life, and trying to understand all of the ups and downs that life is presenting to her right now. Trust me I understand a lot of it being a teen myself, and this book has helped me very much emotionally. She knows that her mother left Smallwood for some reason, but never knows what that reason is exactly until this summer. A visit to her Grandmother ends up changing her life so dramatically. Clarissa does so much in this book that inspires me and makes me love what I have and everything that I may discover as well as give. I am not an emotional person and to this book I broke down sobbing, I was moved that much. I highly recommend this book, and if you never read anything else in your life ever again, and this book is the last book you read, then it was worth being the last book. It is an amazing story and I for one will always have it in my life I plan on ordering it and reading it over and over again.

--Fourteen-year-old Claire's mother Jane is returning to her hometown in B.C. after 25 years away from home. There, Claire meets, among others, her grandmother for the first time, a cute guy, and a mysterious man calling himself Mac and his seven-year-old son Jamie, who is suffering from bone marrow disease. When she finds out who the father-son pair really are, she has to make the biggest decision of her life: which part of her family should she stay loyal to? --Emotional, clear, and funny at times, this is one great first novel from this author. I was particularly glad when it won the B.C. Red Cedar Award for fiction...

I found this book lying at my friend's house and picked it up to see what's it was all about. I knew that my friend was really into books and she read about a thousand of them everyday but this one book really intrigued me into getting a copy myself. I taught me some useful things but the only way to find out what the lessons are ou'll just have to read the book. Some passages made me sort of wonder a bit and thinking deeper into the situation. Ben is a likable narrator and can be related to quite easily.

This book tackles the theme of masculinity and what causes a boy to be a "man." As opposed to the Horn reviewer, I do not think this is a "not-so-new" theme. In fact, having worked with many young teen boys, I would recommend Men of Stone to most of them, as well as to most of the girls I know. True, masculinity has been addressed in previous works, but clearly the kids are not getting it. (Check out "Real Boys"). This book realistically and sensitively calls into question what it means to be a man in our society. Timely, as I watch the men of our world rattle their sabers and wage destruction.
Combines history and a good story line for a didactic, painless, fascinating read.