Book cover of Sorry for Your Loss

Book description

From Printz Honor winner and Morris Award finalist Jessie Ann Foley comes a comitragic YA novel that will appeal to fans of Jandy Nelson and Jeff Zentner.

As the youngest of eight, painfully average Pup Flanagan is used to flying under the radar. He’s barely passing his classes. He lets…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Sorry for Your Loss as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This rare story had me laughing out loud, sobbing, and sighing at the beauty of it from beginning to end. It’s not about a ghost in the paranormal sense, but the story revolves around a family haunted by the death of a son.

Pup (James) Flannigan, the youngest of eight siblings, is used to being the silent observer at his raucous family gatherings. When his oldest brother dies suddenly, grief and denial rattle the family to its core.

I fell in love with Pup immediately! He’s a funny, sensitive guy who’s powerless against his family’s tide of sadness until an…

The first thing I loved about this book is main character, Pup. He’s the youngest of eight siblings and is trying to navigate the murky waters of adolescence in addition to his grief over the loss of an older brother. Unlike a lot of boys in YA, Pup isn’t particularly smart, talented, attractive, or socially skilled. He’s a “regular guy” in ways that I found incredibly refreshing and endearing. I also haven’t read a lot of YA novels about big families and I loved reading about the complex dynamics here. Pup’s journey toward healing and growth involves photography, and this…

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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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