fiction Archives - Page 488 of 724

Behind These Hands
by Linda Vigen Phillips (Author)

Booktalk: Claire Fairchild, 14, has always known music would be her life. So when she has the opportunity to enter a prestigious contest, she goes all in–until she realizes she’s also competing against Juan, a close childhood friend and one of the most talented musicians she knows. It doesn’t help that her thoughts about him are turning romantic.

When Claire and her family receive a devastating blow from Batten disease, her world enters a tailspin. Claire decides her musical goals no longer seem relevant. She can’t reconcile the joy that music would bring to her life while her brothers succumb to an early and ugly death. Her decision puts everything at risk: her friendship with Juan, her parents’ expectations, and her own happiness.

After Claire accompanies a friend on a school newspaper assignment, she meets a centenarian with a unique musical past and only one regret in life. Claire knows something in her life has to change before it’s too late, but she’s not sure she has the courage to take the next step.

Snippet:
CARRIER
“I…I don’t understand
what it means
being a carrier.”
I force the words out
trying to beat down the waves of nausea.

Mom sits next to me,
takes both hands in hers,
and looks squarely into my eyes.

“It simply means, Claire,
that you can pass the mutated gene
on to your own children
one day,”

A 2018 Cybils Poetry nominee

Knockout
by K.A. Holt (Author)

Booktalk: Levi just wants to be treated like a typical kid. As a baby, he had a serious disease that caused him respiratory issues. He’s fine now, but his mom and overprotective brother still think of him as damaged, and his schoolmates see him as the same class clown he’s always been. He feels stuck. So when his dad–divorced from his mom–suggests he take up boxing, he falls in love with the sport. And when he finds out about a school with a killer boxing team and a free-study curriculum, it feels like he’s found a ticket to a new Levi. But how can he tell his mom about boxing? And how can he convince his family to set him free?

Snippet:

A 2018 Cybils Poetry nominee