Second Nature

Jacquelyn Mitchard wrote Second Nature.  Some of the characters from her previous books, Deep End of the Ocean and No Time to Wave Goodbye,  specifically the Cappadora family, are also in this story.  Mitchard grew up in Chicago and that is where this story is placed.  As a child, she heard about a terrible fire at a Catholic school that killed some students and a firefighter.  The author took that incident and created a novel. Sicily is the main character and her father is the fire fighter who was killed.  Sicily's face is burned so badly that she has trouble breathing and eating until, in her mid-twenties, she has a face transplant.  Sicily is an interesting character.  The burns she sustained in the fire scarred her face and stunted her emotional growth.  Until she had a face transplant, she never drove a car, never really enjoyed the taste of food, never dealt with men who found her attractive, and never considered living independently.  She deals with some of these new issues with the emotional intelligence of a ten year old.  I'd recommend this book - easy reading for the middle of summer.