Debbie

John Benton based this on real work at the Walter Hoving Home, a rescue ministry for at-risk girls in New York, and that grounding shows. Debbie Carter's descent into heroin addiction and street exploitation is depicted without glamour, and the faith-based redemption arc is sincere rather than tacked on. For teen readers in crisis or recovery contexts, or youth ministers looking for something honest, that authenticity matters. The content is genuinely heavy — drugs, prostitution, abuse — so parents should preview before handing it to a fourteen-year-old. The formula of degradation followed by conversion repeats across Benton's series, and the narrative shows its age in places. But as a story of grace meeting rock bottom, it delivers what it promises.