The Beautiful Between / Alyssa B. Sheinmel / 184 pages / Fairy Tale

"Maybe the witch thought she was protecting Rapunzel, not punishing her.  Maybe she thought if Rapunzel was locked away, no one could ever hurt her.  Maybe the witch kept Rapunzel because she loved her, because she was scared that if other people could get to Rapunzel they would hurt her.  And maybe Rapunzel didn't understand the witch;  maybe she was angry at her - but maybe she loved her, too."  This is a modern retelling of "Rapunzel".  Connelly Sternin feels as if she is trapped within a fairy tale and tries on several for size.  'Rapunzel' seems to fit best.  Connelly feels abandoned by her mother's silence in their tall-towered New York City apartment.  She is sure the silence relates to her dad who died when she was two.  In third grade, she had asked her mom how he had died, and her mom had reacted with frozen, stiff silence, and had been removed ever since.  Conn had not dared to re-ask the question.  When the high school prince, Jeremy Cole, befriends her and offers her tutoring in physics in exchange for SAT help, he encourages her to push for answers.  This is a captivating read, a real page-turner, although I was disappointed in the bad language.