'It seems to take an awful lot of good people to make a place happy, but just a handful of mischief-makers to turn it bad,' wrote Alan Gibbons, setting the scene for his novel Caught in the Crossfire.
The statement itself is not only true, it also illustrates what a good book Gibbons has written.
A good book needs a solid story. Crossfire examines the scourge of racism and how views have changed in many western countries in the post-September 11 era.
The story is set in a fictional, ethnically mixed town in England called Oakfield.
The terrorist attacks in the United States changed the world, including Oakfield. Trust between the white community and its Muslim neighbours has worn thin following a series of incidents. People are harbouring bad feelings.
Are the social conflicts avoidable? Or is religious infighting inevitable?
The answers to these questions are explored through the lives of six teenagers in Oakfield. Their experiences constitute the second element of the book - a stirring plot.
Darren Wright and Jason Hughes love trouble. It is a chance for them to vent their frustration and excess energy. They vow to make the Islamic community in Oakfield the scapegoat for their feelings.
However, Muslim youngster Tahir Khan will not let them get their way. Tahir is very self-conscious about his identity as a Muslim and feels the situation is very unjust. His feelings of resentment put unjustified pressure on his sister Rabia, who is dating Michael Kelly, a boy from an 'enemy' family.
But things get more complicated, since Michael's brother Liam is helping out a political group, the Patriotic League, whose motto is 'Britain for the British'. Of course, their sense of nationality is based on skin colour.
A good book is also about real characters. In Crossfire, you can actually visualise the feelings of Rabia, Michael and their folks as the events unfold.
A good book makes your heart beat faster, too.
I bit my lip several times when I read how a little girl's birthday celebrations turned into bloodshed and of politicians taking advantage of young people's naive patriotism.
Crossfire is not difficult to read, as the plot is broken down into short chapters. There is no doubt about Gibbons' talent for storytelling either. He won the Blue Peter Book Award in the 'Book I Couldn't Put Down' category for Shadow of the Minotaur. As a youngster he was bullied a lot and faced many of the psychological struggles that the characters in his books must endure. The novel's conclusion is hard to accept. But while the book itself presents no happy ending, I hope the world will achieve such a result.
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Caught in the Crossfire, by Alan Gibbons, a Dolphin paperback by Orion Children's Books, ISBN: 1-84255-096-9