Miss Robin Hood

When teenager Robin declares war on hypocrisy and injustice, her younger sister Tzela and her mother, a psychologist, fear for her well-being. Robin is brilliant but hostile, full of loathing for her home, her school and herself.

After speaking out against the school’s integration program, which is supposed to create an equal society but only papers over the cracks, she says, she stops going to school.  But Robin’s big mouth has made her some enemies. First there are threatening phone calls, then anonymous notes and finally a fearful meeting in a dark cellar. For all her good intentions, middle-class Robin is caught up in the rage and violence of the underprivileged, and these forces are beyond her control. Eventually she is in mortal danger.

This coming-of-age story addresses questions about parental permissiveness and control, and is noteworthy for its on-target portrayal of sibling loyalty tested and found resilient.