I decided not to hold off longer on reading this last book in what was, back in the 1990s, the first major young adult fiction series featuring a multicultural cast of main characters. A group of friends.

And when a serious racial issue directly involves these friends, it presents a new-to-them question one of them ponders on.

How could people who spent so much time together react so differently to the same event?

While the book does keep it all on a YA, "10 years and up" reader's level, I appreciate the nuance in this story—that it isn't oversimplified into a convenient (and unrealistic) black-and-white conflict with everybody having the exact same opinions as others of the same race. Unsurprisingly, the N-word comes up in the dialogue a couple of times, from Black characters speaking from experience or explaining their feelings.

Now, although the issue of "free speech" is a part of the plot, no one (neither the history buff in the core group, nor any grownup) points out the fact that the constitutional right to the freedom of speech in the US is the right not to be censored by the federal government. It isn't the right to just say anything you want anywhere you want at any time when the government isn't involved in the situation, including various situations at school. Granted, that fact may be kind of beyond the scope and the point of this quick "10 years and up" novel, but it's still important to know.

There's plenty more going on in the book as well, including with Murphy High's ecology club and the school's need for recycling; one of the teen characters with only a learner's permit, practicing driving with another teen; a mysterious "Mad Soaper" who's been writing soapy messages on the school's walls; and a personal matter that shakes up one of the group's families.

The story closes on sort of a sad but affirming note. It feels like a story ending but not the ending of a series, and my author's mind can only make some guesses at why the series stopped at twelve novels. Even so, given the prominent element of diversity that made this YA series groundbreaking in its time, having the core group finally face the particular issue they face here doesn't make for a bad last stop on this 18 Pine St. journey. ( )