Life in the Balance

Dear Sweet Pea

I Am Golden

I Choose to Be a Helper: A Colorful, Picture Book About Being Thoughtful and Helpful

The Real Deal

Here in the Real World

The Great Big Book of Families

A Boy Called Bat

In this epistolary middle-grade debut novel, a girl who's questioning her sexual orientation writes letters to her sister, who was sent away from their strict Catholic home after becoming pregnant.

Eleven-year-old Evie is heartbroken when her strict Catholic parents send her pregnant sister away to stay with a distant great-aunt. All Evie wants is for her older sister to come back. But when her parents forbid her to even speak to Cilla, she starts sending letters. Evie writes letters about her family, torn apart and hurting. She writes about her life, empty without Cilla. And she writes about the new girl in school, June, who becomes her friend, and then maybe more than a friend.

As she becomes better friends with June, Evie begins to question her sexual orientation. She can only imagine what might happen if her parents found out who she really is. She could really use some advice from Cilla. But Cilla isn't writing back.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Life in the Balance

Jen Petro-Roy, 2021

Dear Sweet Pea

Julie Murphy, 2019

I Am Golden

Eva Chen, Sophie Diao, 2022

I Choose to Be a Helper: A Colorful, Picture Book About Being Thoughtful and Helpful

Elizabeth Estrada, 2021

The Real Deal

Lindsey Stoddard, 2022

Here in the Real World

Sara Pennypacker, 2020

The Great Big Book of Families

Mary Hoffman, Ros Asquith, 2010

A Boy Called Bat

Charles Santoso, Elana K. Arnold, 2017