The Primal Teen by Barbara Strauch, Doubleday, $24.95, ISBN 0385503393 Reviewed by Laura Spinney
THE mother of a five-year-old I know recently had to sit her son down and explain to him that his father had died and gone to heaven. He nodded and looked grave, but later that day asked her: “Is Daddy still dead?”
Nobody expects a five-year-old to grasp the finality of death, but at what age does that understanding come? If the two teenagers responsible for the Columbine High School massacre had not turned their guns on themselves, should they have stood trial as mature adults…
