In Search of Us

In Search of Us
Author: Ava Dellaira
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2018-03-06
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0374305331

Ava Dellaira's In Search of Us is a sweeping multi-generational love story. To seventeen-year-old Angie, who is mixed-race, Marilyn is her hardworking, devoted white single mother. But Marilyn was once young, too. When Marilyn was seventeen, she fell in love with Angie's father, James, who was African-American. But Angie's never met him, and Marilyn has always told her he died before she was born. When Angie discovers evidence of an uncle she's never met she starts to wonder: What if her dad is still alive, too? So she sets off on a journey to find him, hitching a ride to LA from her home in New Mexico with her ex-boyfriend, Sam. Along the way, she uncovers some hard truths about herself, her mother, and what truly happened to her father. "A rare and special book. Part mother-daughter love story, part road trip journey, part compelling mystery, and one hundred percent beautiful, spellbinding tearjerker. I’m in love with every page." —Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe

Love Letters to the Dead

Love Letters to the Dead
Author: Ava Dellaira
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2014-04-01
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0374346682

“Dear Ava, I loved your book.” —Award-winning actress Emma Watson For fans of Kathleen Glasgow and Amber Smith, Ava Dellaira writes about grief, love, and family with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty in this emotionally stirring, critically acclaimed debut novel, Love Letters to the Dead. It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was—lovely and amazing and deeply flawed—can she begin to discover her own path.

The Summer of Letting Go

The Summer of Letting Go
Author: Gae Polisner
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2014-02-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1616204400

Just when everything seems to be going wrong, hope—and love—can appear in the most unexpected places. Summer has begun, the beach beckons—and Francesca Schnell is going nowhere. Four years ago, Francesca’s little brother, Simon, drowned, and Francesca’s the one who should have been watching. Now Francesca is about to turn sixteen, but guilt keeps her stuck in the past. Meanwhile, her best friend, Lisette, is moving on—most recently with the boy Francesca wants but can’t have. At loose ends, Francesca trails her father, who may be having an affair, to the local country club. There she meets four-year-old Frankie Sky, a little boy who bears an almost eerie resemblance to Simon, and Francesca begins to wonder if it’s possible Frankie could be his reincarnation. Knowing Frankie leads Francesca to places she thought she’d never dare to go—and it begins to seem possible to forgive herself, grow up, and even fall in love, whether or not she solves the riddle of Frankie Sky.

Saturday

Saturday
Author:
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 41
Release: 2019-10-22
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0316431265

In this warm and tender story by the Caldecott Honor-winning creator of Thank You, Omu!, join a mother and daughter on an up-and-down journey that reminds them of what's best about Saturdays: precious time together. Today would be special. Today would be splendid. It was Saturday! But sometimes, the best plans don't work out exactly the way you expect.... In this heartfelt and universal story, a mother and daughter look forward to their special Saturday routine together every single week. But this Saturday, one thing after another goes wrong--ruining storytime, salon time, picnic time, and the puppet show they'd been looking forward to going to all week. Mom is nearing a meltdown...until her loving daughter reminds her that being together is the most important thing of all. Author-artist Oge Mora's highly anticipated follow up to Caldecott Honor Thank You, Omu! features the same magnificently radiant artwork and celebration of sharing so beloved in her debut picture book.

Eldest Daughter

Eldest Daughter
Author: Ava Leavell Haymon
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 86
Release: 2013-08-12
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0807153397

In Eldest Daughter, Ava Leavell Haymon displays her mastery of the craft and engages us with the poetic gifts we have come to expect from her. As in previous collections, she combines the sensory and the spiritual in wild verbal fireworks. Concrete descriptions of a woman's life in the mid-twentieth-century American South mix with wider concerns about family lies and truths, and a culture that supports or forbids clear speech. In a passage from "The Holy Ghost Attends Vacation Bible School," the physical world of children interplays with the divine: The least likely place the Holy Ghost ever descended was in east Mississippi. Red clay hills and church politics soured on years of inbreeding. Every deacon drove a pickup. At Bible School, the kids played red rover and rolled down the sharp slope behind the Baptist church. He recognized the dizziness at the bottom and the fear of having your name called, but the grass stains, the torn blouses and sprained wrists—these were beyond Him. Haymon's poems encourage us to revel in the natural world and enjoy its delights, as well as to confront the difficult realities that keep us from doing so.

All Your Perfects

All Your Perfects
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2018-07-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1501171607

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Starts with Us and It Ends with Us—whose writing is “emotionally wrenching and utterly original” (Sara Shepard, New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars series)—delivers a tour de force novel about a troubled marriage and the one old forgotten promise that might be able to save it. Quinn and Graham’s perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair. All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking page-turner that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?

Wunderland

Wunderland
Author: Jennifer Cody Epstein
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2020-02-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0525576916

USA TODAY BESTSELLER • “Searing . . . a heartbreaking page-turner.”—People “Both heartbreaking and hopeful, this story of a daughter searching for the truth about her mother’s secret past, tangled up in old secrets and terrible lies, kept me up late turning pages.”—Martha Hall Kelly, bestselling author of Lilac Girls This edition includes an exclusive reader’s guide featuring thought-provoking questions for your book club and an interview with the author! Once inseparable, Berlin teenagers Ilse Fischer and Renate Bauer find their friendship ripped apart by their nation’s abrupt swing into fascism. Ilse, a so-called Aryan, throws her lot in with the Nazi Party, while Renate sees her once-secure world dismantled by Adolf Hitler’s race laws and then shattered by a shocking betrayal. Decades later, that same betrayal will upend the life of Ilse’s daughter, Ava, as she discovers long-buried truths about her mother’s past. A harrowing page-turner, Wunderland traces the lives of three women across two generations—and the devastating repercussions of choices made in the dark days of wartime Germany. Praise for Wunderland “Engrossing . . . Epstein reveals the devastating choices these women make.”—Real Simple “Wunderland is both an engrossing family drama and a foray into a dark period of history . . . a wholly original angle to the WWII novel. You’ll read it in one shivered sitting.”—Refinery29 “A vividly written and stark chronicle of Nazism and its legacies.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A wealth of history turns Wunderland into a novel that’s both beautiful and devastating. . . . Epstein taps into the 1930s prewar era, laying out an unsparing narrative that details tragic events and horrifying legacies . . . opening a new door that may lead to redemption and joy for future generations.”—BookPage (starred review) “[A] heartbreaking historical tour de force . . . Man’s inhumanity to man—and the redemptive power of forgiveness—is on stark and effective display in Epstein’s gripping novel, a devastating tale bound for bestseller lists.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Ava

Ava
Author: Carole Maso
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1993
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781564780744

From a hospital bed on this, her last day on earth, thirty-nine-year-old Ava Klein makes one final ecstatic voyage. People, places, offhand memories, and imaginary things drift in and out of her consciousness and weave their way through this beautiful, poetic novel. In this celebration of life, Carole Maso captures the poignancy of mortality, the extraordinary desire to live and the inevitability of death. Ava yearns and the reader yearns with her, struggling to hold on to all that slips away.--back cover

I Can Write the World

I Can Write the World
Author: Joshunda Sanders
Publisher: Six Foot Press
Total Pages: 39
Release: 2020-06-15
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 164442035X

"Lovely and timely. So glad Joshunda is telling our stories." - Jacqueline Woodson Eight-year-old Ava Murray wants to know why there’s a difference between the warm, friendly Bronx neighborhood filled with music and art in which she lives and the Bronx she sees in news stories on TV and on the Internet. When her mother explains that the power of stories lies in the hands of those who write them, Ava decides to become a journalist. I Can Write the World follows Ava as she explores her vibrant South Bronx neighborhood - buildings whose walls boast gorgeous murals of historical figures as well as intricate, colorful street art, the dozens of different languages and dialects coming from the mouths of passersby, the many types of music coming out of neighbors’ windows and passing cars. In reporting how the music and art and culture of her neighborhood reflect the diversity of the people of New York City, Ava shows the world as she sees it, revealing to children the power of their own voice.

Dead Letters

Dead Letters
Author: Caite Dolan-Leach
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0399588876

A missing woman leads her twin sister on a twisted scavenger hunt in this clever debut novel with eccentric, dysfunctional characters who will keep you guessing until the end—for readers of Luckiest Girl Alive and The Wife Between Us. Ava has her reasons for running away to Paris. But when she receives the shocking news that her twin sister, Zelda, is dead, she is forced to return home to her family’s failing vineyard in upstate New York. Knowing Zelda’s penchant for tricks and deception, Ava is not surprised when she receives her twin’s cryptic message from beyond the grave. Following her sister’s trail of clues, Ava immerses herself in Zelda’s drama and her outlandish circle of friends and lovers, and soon finds herself confronted with dark family legacies and twisted relationships. Is Zelda trying to punish Ava for leaving? Or is she simply trying to write her own ending? Caite Dolan-Leach’s debut thriller is a literary scavenger hunt for secrets hidden everywhere from wine country to social media, and buried at the dysfunctional heart of one utterly unforgettable family. Praise for Dead Letters “Dolan-Leach writes like Paula Hawkins by way of Curtis Sittenfeld.”—Amy Gentry, author of Good as Gone “A sharp, wrenching tale of the true love only twins know . . . Dolan-Leach nimbly entwines the clever mystery of Agatha Christie, the wit of Dorothy Parker, and the inebriated Gothic of Eugene O’Neill.”—Kirkus Reviews “A smart, dazzling mystery . . . Dolan-Leach revels in toying with both Ava and her audience . . . and the result is captivating.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Draws you in like you are part of the story itself, living and breathing alongside the compelling characters as they uncover the dark secrets of their complicated family.”—Wendy Walker, author of All Is Not Forgotten “Push-pull tension . . . This book is wine-soaked yet lucid, comforting and frightening, asking the big questions about intimacy and loyalty.”—Caroline Kepnes, author of You