Fingerprints of You
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A teen embarks on the road trip of a lifetime in this authentic, beautifully written debut novel that Judy Blume says is “sure to appeal to both teens and adults.”
Lemon grew up with Stella, a single mom who wasn’t exactly maternal. Stella always had a drink in her hand and a new boyfriend every few months, and when things got out of hand, she would whisk Lemon off to a new town for a fresh beginning. Now, just as they are moving yet again, Lemon discovers that she is pregnant from a reckless encounter—with a guy Stella had been flirting with.
On the verge of revisiting her mother’s mistakes, Lemon struggles to cope with the idea of herself as a young unmarried mother, as well as the fact that she’s never met her own father. Determined to have at least one big adventure before she has the baby, Lemon sets off on a cross-country road trip, intending not only to meet her father, but to figure out who she wants to be.
Lyrical and moving prose, from an original voice whose writing Judy Blume calls “luminous,” deftly depicts the nuanced conflicts of early motherhood and the search for identity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"I wanted a permanent address, a home with enough space for us to unpack all the boxes, a family that made more sense than we did." Seventeen-year-old Lemon is tired of being dragged around the country while her impulsive and artistic mother, Stella, gets involved with one lousy boyfriend after another. After a fling with a tattoo artist, Lemon discovers she's pregnant, and she and Stella land in Morgantown, West Va. There, Lemon makes a brash new friend, Emmy, who Lemon persuades to accompany her on a cross-country road trip to San Francisco, as Lemon seeks the birth father she never knew. Lemon and Emmy head to California on a Greyhound bus over Christmas break, and Lemon doesn't plan on returning until she has answers. Debut novelist Madonia offers an intimate reflection on the meaning of family, as Lemon struggles with Stella's instability and weighs their relationship against her own impending motherhood. Lemon's memories of her peripatetic upbringing are skillfully woven throughout this thoughtful story about finding an identity and a home. Ages 14 up.