37 Things I Love (in no particular order)
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Ellis only has four days of her sophomore year left, and summer is so close that she can almost taste it. But even with vacation just within reach, Ellis isn't exactly relaxed. Her father has been in a coma for years, the result of a construction accident, and her already-fragile relationship with her mother is strained over whether or not to remove him from life support. Her best friend fails even to notice that anything is wrong and Ellis feels like her world is falling apart. But when all seems bleak, Ellis finds comfort in the most unexpected places.
Life goes on, but in those four fleeting days friends are lost and found, promises are made, and Ellis realizes that nothing will ever quite be the same.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Magoon (Camo Girl) gently but unflinchingly explores difficult adolescent territory in this intelligent, affecting novel. Set over the last four days before summer vacation, the book traces 15-year-old Ellis's complex emotional journey as she confronts the inevitable death of her comatose father, who was injured in a construction accident two years earlier, navigates volatile friendship dramas, explores her sexual identity, and struggles with her evolving relationship with her mother. Deftly developed characters (including well-drawn minor ones) and highly credible relationships especially the loving yet testy push-and-pull ("a flawed and fragile thing," notes Ellis) between Ellis and her mother ground the book. Magoon persuasively depicts the high school social scene and Ellis's simultaneously secure and awkward role in it; her memories of her father are particularly well rendered with a love that avoids lapsing into sentimentality. Both perceptive and perplexed "I am torn. Abby: best friend or today's pariah? Evan: savior of the hour or he who may try to feel me up?" Ellis tells her story in a singular voice that captures and holds readers' interest and empathy. Ages 14 up.
