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  • Book cover of Goodbye, Perfect
    Sara Barnard

     · 2020

    “This gripping novel examines anxiety, identity, pressure, and power with Barnard’s characteristic lightness of touch.” —The Guardian “Nuanced, compelling, honest, and important.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Winner of The Bookseller’s YA Book Prize Friendship bonds are tested and the very nature of loyalty is questioned in this lyrical novel about a teen whose best friend runs away with her teacher after suffering the effects of too much academic pressure. Perfect for fans of Morgan Matson and Jennifer Niven. Eden McKinley knows she can’t count on much in this world, but she can depend on Bonnie, her solid, steady, straight-A best friend. So it’s a bit of a surprise when Bonnie runs away with the boyfriend Eden knows nothing about five days before the start of their final exams. Especially when the police arrive on her doorstep and Eden finds out that Bonnie’s boyfriend is actually their music teacher, Mr. Cohn. Sworn to secrecy and bound by loyalty, only Eden knows Bonnie’s location, and that’s the way it has to stay. There’s no way she’s betraying her best friend. Not even when she’s faced with police questioning, suspicious parents, and her own growing doubts. As the days pass and things begin to unravel, Eden is forced to question everything she thought she knew about the world, her best friend, and herself. In this touching and insightful novel, bestselling author Sara Barnard explores just what can happen when the pressure one faces to be “perfect” leads to drastic fallout.

  • Book cover of Destination Anywhere
    Sara Barnard

     · 2022

    Perfect for fans of Morgan Matson and Sarah Dessen, this lushly written and heart-wrenching novel follows a teen girl on a one-way trip away from her life and slowly reveals what made her leave it all behind. Sometimes you have to leave your life behind to find your place in the world… ​Peyton King has always wanted to belong. She seizes the opportunity to start over at a new school and finally finds real connections with the friends she’s always dreamed of and even an actual boyfriend! But after flying high in her newfound happiness, Peyton comes crashing down when reality sets in and the ones she cares about let her down. Peyton’s friends can’t fix her and she can’t help them if they won’t let her. If she wants to find real, lasting happiness, Peyton will have to search somewhere else. With nothing but her sketchpad and a backpack, she buys a one-way ticket and gets on a plane. How far will she go to change her story?

  • Book cover of A Quiet Kind of Thunder
    Sara Barnard

     · 2019

    Perfect for fans of Morgan Matson and Jandy Nelson. A girl who can’t speak and a boy who can’t hear go on a journey of self-discovery and find support with each other in this gripping, emotionally resonant novel for “readers who enjoyed John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down” (Booklist) from bestselling author Sara Barnard. Steffi doesn’t talk, but she has so much to say. Rhys can’t hear, but he can listen. Steffi has been a selective mute for most of her life. The condition’s name has always felt ironic to her, because she certainly does not “select” not to speak. In fact, she would give anything to be able to speak as easily and often as everyone around her can. She suffers from crippling anxiety, and uncontrollably, in most situations simply can’t open her mouth to get out the words. Steffi’s been silent for so long that she feels completely invisible. But Rhys, the new boy at school, sees her. He’s deaf, and her knowledge of basic sign language means that she’s assigned to help him acclimate. To Rhys, it doesn’t matter that Steffi doesn’t talk. As they find ways to communicate, Steffi discovers that she does have a voice, and that she’s falling in love with the one person who makes her feel brave enough to use it. But as she starts to overcome a lifelong challenge, she’ll soon confront questions about the nature of her own identity and the very essence of what it is to know another person.

  • Book cover of Fragile Like Us
    Sara Barnard

     · 2017

    A pitch perfect novel about friendship and what it takes to break the bonds between friends, “for fans of Morgan Matson and Sarah Dessen” (VOYA). Caddy and Rosie have always been inseparable. But that was before Suzanne. Now the twosome has become a triangle with constantly shifting alliances. Caddy’s ready to be more than just the quiet one. She wants something to happen. Suzanne is trying to escape her past and be someone different, someone free. But sometimes downward spirals have a momentum of their own. And no one can break your heart like a best friend.

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    No author available

     · 2019

  • Book cover of Beautiful Broken Things
    Sara Barnard

     · 2016

    Beautiful Broken Things is a moving story of friendship from debut author Sara Barnard, shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and selected as part of Zoella's Book Club. Now with a bold cover look. I was brave She was reckless We were trouble Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne's past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realizes, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own. 'I felt like I was living this book' - Zoella 'This book is exquisite, and exactly what YA needs . . . This author is one to watch!' - Holly Bourne, author of Am I Normal Yet?

  • Book cover of Floored

    The Breakfast Club meets One Day in Floored, a unique collaborative novel by seven bestselling and award-winning YA authors: Sara Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood. When they got in the lift that morning, they were strangers. Sasha, who is at the UK's biggest TV centre desperately trying to deliver a parcel; Hugo, who knows he's by far the richest – and best-looking – guy in the lift; Velvet, who regrets wearing the world's least comfortable shoes to work experience; Dawson, who isn't the good-looking teen star he was and desperate not to be recognized; Kaitlyn, who's slowly losing her sight but won't admit it, and Joe, who shouldn't be there at all, but who wants to be there the most. And one more person, who will bring them together again on the same day every year . . .

  • Book cover of Fierce Fragile Hearts
    Sara Barnard

     · 2021

    The powerful sequel to the bestselling Beautiful Broken Things, which was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and selected for Zoella's Book Club. Now reissued with a fresh cover look.Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She's back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they're about to leave for university. When your friends have been your light in the darkness, what happens when you're the one left behind?Fierce Fragile Hearts is the stunning companion novel to Sara Barnard's YA bestseller Beautiful Broken Things, which was selected for the inaugural Zoella Book Club. It is about leaving the past behind, the friends who form your future, and learning to find love, in all its forms.Praise for Fierce Fragile Friends "This book is exquisite." - Holly Bourne, bestselling author of Am I Normal Yet?

  • Book cover of Where the Light Goes
    Sara Barnard

     · 2023

    "To the world, Lizzie Beck is a superstar: famous, talented and beloved. To Emmy, she is simply Beth: her brilliant older sister, her idol. But then Beth takes her own life, and all the light in the world disappears. Now Emmy is lost. Amidst the media storm and overwhelming public grief, she must fight to save her own memories of her sister - and find out who she is without her"--Publisher's description.

  • Book cover of The Saga of Indian Em?ly
    Sara Barnard

     · 2015

    Twelve-year-old Wind That Knocks Down Lodges loves his little sister, Cactus Flower, and the wildness of the desert canyonland the Apache call home. But in one night of misunderstanding and mistakes, Knocks Down and Cactus Flower's innocent world is shaken as they find themselves locked in the nearby fort with the pale face soldiers and their mother's lifeless body. With no one to lean on but each other, Knocks Down and Cactus Flower must make their way as children of The People in the pale face world-pale faces who have now become the enemy. After finding themselves at the mercy of the Army, far from Apache Territory and well on the trail to Colorado, Knocks Down must bring himself to trust the soldier, Pale Face Joe. But Joe disappears, and when ordered to dispose of the children or else, the other Army soldiers waste no time in depositing them at the nearest Catholic orphanage. They manage to escape the evil orphanage along with a new pale face friend, Kid McCoy. But they are set upon by a gang of murdering claim jumpers who steal Cactus. With Kid McCoy's help, Knocks Down goes after her. When they encounter a soldier who was responsible for their mother's death, they realize he's set on seeing them dead, as well. How can a boy defeat a battle-hardened soldier? Just when Knocks Down is about to give up, the biggest surprise of all changes everything...