Life Is Fine — Allison Whittenberg

Life is not fine for Samara Tuttle, but she's coping. Her overworked mother is distant and cold, and her mother's boyfriend, Q, attacks Samara when she tries to clean up after his lazy, Funyun-loving self. Samara's a loner. But all of this changes when Mr. Halbrook arrives at school. Samara's English teacher takes ill, and in steps Mr. Jerome Halbrook, a suitwearing, blue-eyed African American man who uses Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" to inspire a spirited discussion about poetry, love, and truth. Soon Samara is borrowing his collections of poetry, and then she can't stop thinking about Mr. Halbrook. Soon Samara is confiding in him about her less-than-fine past, and dreaming of a different future. But when Mr. Halbrook disappears -- and it appears that he may not be all that he seemed -- will she be able to picture a future without him?