I'll Be There / Holly Goldberg Sloan / 392 pages

I kept avoiding this Gateway Award Preliminary Nominee based on its cover art - silhouettes of a boy and girl lit by headlights at the edge of a cliff.  I thought - another teenage romance filled with the angst of adolescence.  I'll Be There is both of these, but much, much more.  It is a tale of love at first sight, soul mates, abusive parenting, mental illness, developmental delays, extraordinary gifts, survival in the wilderness, generosity, etc.  At time I thought I was reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen...but with an edge.  The story is a bit marred by bad language, but it is not overwhelming.