Dead Wednesday
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Can playing dead bring you back to life? Maybe on Dead Wednesday… On this day the worlds of a shy boy and a gone girl collide, and the connection they make will change them both forever. A brilliant new novel from the Newbery Medal winner and author of the New York Times bestseller Stargirl.
"Jerry Spinelli has created another middle grade masterpiece." —BookPage, starred review
On Dead Wednesday, every eighth grader in Amber Springs is assigned the name and identity of a teenager who died a preventable death in the past year. The kids don black shirts and for the whole day everyone in town pretends they're invisible—as if they weren't even there. The adults think it will make them contemplate their mortality. The kids know it's a free pass to get away with anything.
Worm Tarnauer feels invisible every day. He's perfectly happy being the unnoticed sidekick of his friend Eddie. So he's not expecting Dead Wednesday to feel that different. But he didn't count on being assigned Becca Finch (17, car crash). And he certainly didn't count on Becca showing up to boss him around! Letting this girl into his head is about to change everything.
This is the story of the unexpected, heartbreaking, hilarious, truly epic day when Worm Tarnauer discovers his own life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Robbie "Worm" Tarnauer is excited to participate in Dead Wednesday, when all eighth graders in Amber Springs, Pa., are given a black shirt, assigned the name of a local teenager who died a preventable death, and then ignored for the day—treated as "dead" by the faculty. Though it's intended to be a grim warning, most students see the day as license to goof off. Worm, however, aptly named since he prefers to be "out of sight, underground, watching, listening," is happy for a day of invisibility. But when Worm receives the name "Rebecca Ann Finch" and dons the black shirt, he also gets a surprise: the sudden presence of Becca's ghost. A quirky, charismatic 17-year-old wearing raspberry-colored pajamas, she's guilt-ridden about the pain her death caused and convinced that she's arrived to help Worm take charge of his existence. The more she reveals about her life and death, however, the more Worm wonders if it's Becca who actually needs his assistance. Though Becca's characterization can feel more conceptual than fully fleshed, and the male characters frequently view girls as homogeneous, self-conscious Worm's slow-building affection for lively Becca leads to a bittersweet conclusion that prepares both for the future. Centering meaningful themes of ephemerality, forgiveness, and self-acceptance, Spinelli's (Stargirl) characters—cued white—will undoubtedly dig their way into the hearts of readers who need them most. Ages 10–up.
