guilt

The Brightwood Code

Sophie Rosen , , ,

Hesse, Karen. The Brightwood Code. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2024.
Eighteen-year-old Edda has returned from France, where she served as a telephone operator on the front lines of World War 1. Now at home in America, she is still working as a telephone operator, but her life has not become peaceful. Traumatic memories haunt her and mysterious phone calls terrify her. What actually happened in France and who is trying to harm her? Slowly, the truth is revealed. A story of courage and determination, this outstanding 317-page novel is highly recommended for mature readers fourteen years old and up. 

“It’s not that grief gets smaller, it’s that life gets bigger around it.”

(Note: due to the sexual references, some parents and private schools may prefer to reserve this book for older readers.)

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The List of Things That Will Not Change

Sophie Rosen , , ,

Stead, Rebecca. The List of Things That Will Not Change. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2020.
Ten-year-old Bea knows her parents both love her, despite their divorce. She is excited about her father’s upcoming marriage to his gay partner and excited about getting a new step-sister. So life should be as full of as much happiness as her heart can hold. But she has a secret: she has done something that worries her, something that may have harmed someone else. No one else writes about guilt as powerfully as Rebecca Stead. Her Newbery award-winning novel When You Reach Me also carries the feeling of dreadful responsibility that comes with guilt. Told from the first-person point of view, this novel will appeal to slightly younger readers, 10 to 13 years old, who enjoy stories by Patricia Reilly Giff, Patricia MacLachlan, Susan Patron, and Sara Pennypacker.

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