"Brezenoff's enviable prose captures distinct, compelling characters as they struggle through the often heartbreaking work of becoming adults. Readers will identify with Lily, Noah and Simon as they try to reconcile their longing for connection with their need to break free." —Sara Zarr, National Book Award Nominee and author of Once Was Lost
The absolute value of any number, positive or negative, is its distance from zero. So what's the absolute value of a friendship? Of love? Just how far apart are we, anyway?
Lily: "For three years, I'd been trying to hold on to Simon and pull him up against me. He was a bar of soap in the shower, though: slippery as hell, and one false move—squeeze a little too tight—and he's gone. And picking up a wet bar of soap in the shower is pretty difficult."
Noah: "Lily has these big brown eyes. It sounds corny, but they totally get me. They make my stomach and heart flip five times a piece. So I looked away quickly, because I have a tendency to kind of stare at her if I don't catch myself. It's been like that forever."
Simon: "I never thought much would change with Lily being my girlfriend. I mean, she and Noah were the only people I hung out with much anyway, so now I'd be kissing her and fondling her and she'd be kissing me and fondling me. Not much of a difference, really."
About Steve Brezenoff
Steve Brezenoff has written several chapter books for young readers, and The Absolute Value of -1 is his first novel for teens. Though Steve grew up in a suburb on Long Island, he now lives with his wife, their son, and their terrier, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Follow his blog at www.stevebrezenoff.com.
"When I read for pleasure, I read for voice, and Loa's voice is so true, so bone-dry funny, so enormously sad....Brava Blythe Woolston for giving this girl's voice to the world."
—Kathe Koja, author of Headlong
"Blythe Woolston's Loa Lindgren—like Kaye Gibbons's Ellen Foster or Sapphire's Precious Jones—is marvelously tenacious, off-beat, and resilient. But she's her own girl, and her insights—about physics, mortality, loyalty and grief—feel stunning and new. This is a startling and believable voice. The Freak Observer is a compelling read." —Julie Schumacher, author of Black Box
"Blythe Woolston's The Freak Observer is at once tender and shocking, smart and edgy, emotionally rich and emotionally raw. Woolston writes with what seems like great ease yet with great originality." —Christine Meldrum, author of Madapple
For eight years, Loa Lindgren's world ran like one of those mechanical models of the solar system, with her baby sister, Asta, as the sun. Asta suffered from a genetic disorder that left her a permanent infant, and caring for her was Loa's life. Everything spun neatly and regularly as the whole family orbited around Asta.
But now Asta's dead, and 16-year-old Loa's clockwork galaxy has collapsed. As Loa spins off on her own, her mind ambushes her with vivid nightmares and sadistic flashbacks—a textbook case of PTSD. But there are no textbook fixes for Loa's short-circuiting brain. She must find her own way to pry her world from the clutches of death.
The Freak Observer is a startling debut about death, life, astrophysics, and finding beauty in chaos.
About Blythe Woolston
Blythe Woolston doesn't remember learning how to read, but she suspects someone taught her as ploy to keep her out of trouble in a slightly dangerous world full of bears and chainsaws and swift rivers. Today she reads books and writes the indexes that appear on their final pages. She lives in a wonder cupboard: One drawer is full of peppercorns, another holds the skull of a hoplitomeryx, another collects lint that might be useful in making bandages if it comes to that. The Freak Observer is her first novel. Follow her blog at www.blythewoolston.com.
There are things the people of Winter, Wisconsin, would rather forget. The year the Nazis came to town, for one. That fire, for another. But what they'd really like to forget is Christian Cage.
Seventeen-year-old Christian's parents disappeared when he was a little boy. Ever since, he's drawn obsessively: his mother's face...her eyes...and what he calls "the sideways place," where he says his parents are trapped. Christian figures if he can just see through his mother's eyes, maybe he can get there somehow and save them.
But Christian also draws other things. Ugly things. Evil things. Dark things. Things like other people's fears and nightmares. Their pasts. Their destiny.
And some things the people of Winter would rather forget—like murder.
But Winter won't be able to forget the truth, no matter how hard it tries. Not as long as Christian draws the dark...
About Ilsa J. Bick
Ilsa J. Bick is a child psychiatrist, as well as a film scholar, surgeon wannabe, former Air Force major, and an award-winning author of short stories, e-books and novels. She has also written for several long-running sci-fi series, and her original stories have been featured in numerous anthologies, magazines and online venues.
Ilsa currently lives with her family and several furry creatures in rural Wisconsin, near a Hebrew cemetery. One thing she loves about the neighbors: They're very quiet and only come around for sugar once in a blue moon.
An enemy is hiding in Anna's barn—a Russian prisoner of war on the run from the Nazis. Only Anna knows he's there. If she turns him in, he'll be shot. But if she hides him, she'll be a traitor to Germany. And for that, she could be shot herself...
About Gudrun Pausewang
Gudrun Pausewang is one of Germany's top authors for teenagers. Her books have been widely translated and have won numerous awards, including the German Literature Award for Children's Books. Ms. Pausewang grew up in Nazi Germany and often deals with political issues in her writing. She lives in Schlitz, Germany.
Carolrhoda Lab is dedicated to distinctive, provocative, boundary-pushing fiction for teens and their sympathizers. Carolrhoda Lab probes and examines the young-adult condition one novel at a time, affording YA authors and readers an opportunity to explore and experiment with thoughts, ideas, and paradigms in the human condition. Adolescence is an experience we share and a condition from which some of us never quite recover. All of us at Carolrhoda Lab are proud to proclaim our lifelong adolescence and our commitment to publishing exceptional fiction about the teenage experience.
