Life in the Balance

Dear Sweet Pea

Sundae Girl

The Trouble with Zinny Weston

A Storm of Strawberries

For Black Girls Like Me

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

Fighting Words

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

Sundae Girl

Cathy Cassidy, 2007

The Trouble with Zinny Weston

Amy Goldman Koss, 1998

A Storm of Strawberries

Jo Cotterill, 2017

For Black Girls Like Me

Mariama J. Lockington, 2019

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

Elizabeth Estrada, 2021

Fighting Words

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, 2020