The Trouble with Liberty by Kristin Butcher is in the Orca Soundings series of high-interest contemporary themes for teen readers. The series deliberately explores contentious subjects, uses authentic dialog (short of actual foul language) and involves open or unresolved endings with the purpose of encouraging discussion and further exploration of the issues.
Readers are advised to keep this in mind when reading The Trouble with Liberty or other books in the Soundings series.
Plot Summary of The Trouble With Liberty by Kristin Butcher
When Liberty Hayes storms into fictitious Sutter's Crossing (pop. 2633, "including the baby that Mrs. Hooper is expecting") late in the summer, she quickly ingratiates herself with protagonist Val MacQueen and Val's rodeo-rider brother, Cody.
Liberty has much that Sutter's Crossing does not: money, style, and a big-city me-first attitude. Before the first day of high school is over, Liberty is surrounded by new friends and, in the words of Val's friend Ryan Wilson, "has half the guys in the school drooling over her." But not Ryan, who is decidedly cool to the new girl in town.
As Liberty gradually takes control of the high school social scene, the action heats up. Liberty is the kind of girl who wears a see-through blouse to a party (to the delight of the guys), which Val thinks is definitely "too New York for Sutter's Crossing"). She doesn't seem to have much parental supervision. She goes her own way and does her own thing.
Her thing includes persuading Val to be her "new best friend" and getting Cody MacQueen ga-ga over her. But Val is increasingly uncomfortable as her best friend Ryan becomes increasingly distant and estranged.
Her discomfort peaks when Liberty talks about the music teacher as being "a hunk" and deliberately hangs around after class. When Liberty then accuses the school music teacher of molesting her, Val doesn't know what to think. She is suspicious, but is still responsive to Liberty's charisma and charm.
The balance of the book twists and turns as the main characters Val, Cody, and Ryan work out the story behind the accusation and learn some uncomfortable truths about truth, lies, communication – and themselves.
Comments on Character, Style, and Plot in The Trouble with Liberty
This book is well-crafted, with characters that have a little more depth (and more obvious faults) than is common in low-vocab/high-interest series. A few points:
- Butcher has captured the hot-house milieu of both small town and high school: vicious gossip, rapidly-shifting alliances, polarization over contentious issues, and everyone knowing everyone's business (or thinking they do).
- Liberty is a rounded character, with enough likable qualities if not to overcome her multiple flaws then at least to arouse a little reader sympathy. Probably every high school has a manipulative bitch just like her.
- Val MacQueen seems a little too ingenuous, her brother Cody a little too easily led, Ryan Wilson just a little too reserved and the adults in the book just a little too wishy-washy to be quite believable (and thus effective for the teen audience).
- The ending is not neat. Several lives have been ruined. Nobody is really happy with the way things work out. Liberty walks away from Sutter's Crossing almost as blithely as she walked in.
Definitely an unresolved ending that should stimulate a lot of discussion.
The Trouble with Liberty has a word play in the title. The title character has a freedom that some teens may envy. Freedom from parental restraint. Freedom to pursue her own wants, without necessarily enduring the consequences. The freedom of a spoiled child.
The trouble with liberty – and the theme of the book – is that freedom needs to be accompanied by responsibility.
Butcher, Kristin, The Trouble with Liberty. Custer, WA: Orca Book Publishers, 2003. ISBN 1-55143-274-9
Thomas Alan Gray - Tom has been writing for over 30 years; curiosity leads him to dig into a wide variety of topics.
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