The First Thing About You
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A high school student with spinal muscular atrophy is determined to reinvent himself in a hilarious and poignant debut from an exciting new voice. When fifteen-year-old Harris moves with his family from California (home of beautiful-but-inaccessible beaches) to New Jersey (home of some much-hyped pizza and bagels), he’s determined to be known as more than just the kid in the powered wheelchair. Armed with his favorite getting-to-know-you question (“What’s your favorite color?”), he’ll weed out the incompatible people—the greens and the purples, people who are too close to his own blue to make for good friends—and surround himself with outgoing yellows, adventurous oranges, and even thrilling reds. But first things first: he needs to find a new nurse, stat, so that his mom doesn’t have to keep accompanying him to school. Enter Miranda, a young nursing student who graduated from Harris’s new high school. Beautiful, confident, and the perfect blend of orange and red, Miranda sees Harris for who he really is—funny, smart, and totally worthy of the affections of Nory Fischer, the cute girl who’s in most of his classes. With Miranda at his side, Harris soon befriends geeky Zander (yellow) and even makes headway with Nory (who stubbornly refuses to reveal her favorite color). But Miranda is fighting her own demons, and Harris starts to wonder if she truly has his best interests at heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fifteen-year-old Harris, who has spinal muscular atrophy, seeks to reinvent himself while navigating first love in Hayden's sincere debut. After spending most of his childhood in and out of hospitals, Harris, who uses a wheelchair, is sure his family's move from California to New Jersey is the perfect opportunity to "start living a real teenage life." When he meets friendly Zander on the first day of school, Harris asks his go-to ice breaker—"What's your favorite color?"—and learns that it's yellow, which he feels signals an auspicious start to their budding friendship. Asking this question helps him avoid people he believes he's incompatible with—his favorite color is blue, so he doesn't gel well with greens and purples, since they're too similar—but he's stumped about what to do when he meets beautiful, enigmatic classmate Nory, who won't tell him her favorite hue. When his impetuous new aide Miranda, a nursing student, plays matchmaker, her sometimes emotionally risky suggestions, and Harris's growing feelings for both her and Nory, complicate matters. Via Harris's wry first-person narration, Hayden, who also has SMA, explores themes of friendship and finding oneself with good humor and authority. Most characters cue as white. Ages 14–up.
Customer Reviews
Awesome book
This book was a great read. The characters were well written and the growth of the main character throughout the story really makes you think. Absolutely loved it, would read it again or any book by Chaz, really.