And+We+Stay

And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard SLJ Gr 9 and up 2014 Realistic Fiction Recommended by Merrimack Middle School

Link to the NHU PAC entry here

Summary (Amazon):
 * A Michael L. Printz Honor Award Winner **

Senior Paul Wagoner walks into his school with a stolen gun, threatens his girlfriend, Emily Beam, and then takes his own life. Soon after, angry and guilt-ridden Emily is sent to a boarding school in Amherst, Massachusetts, where two quirky fellow students and the spirit of Emily Dickinson offer helping hands. But it is up to Emily Beam to heal her own damaged self, to find the good behind the bad, hope inside the despair, and springtime under the snow.

Comments:

This is a beautifully written, raw coming of age story but ultimately I would pass on this because it's just too old for our list. The writing is lovely - the prose is written in 3rd person which I personally like but I know isn't the trend right now so it might be a challenge for some of our students who will see it as boring. However, I felt that I was still able to empathize with Emily's story - her confused feelings for Paul, their relationship, sex, her pregnancy and abortion, and her existential questions - about God, "why" it all happened, what her hand was in it - all of the natural questions that people ask after a tragedy. Paul and Emily's brief romance is told through flashbacks as Emily works through her grief; in a new school she is free to chose to share or hide facts about her past. The adults are present and well drawn - a mix of supportive (teachers, Emily Dickinson through her poetry - no, there is no actual ghost mentoring her) and strict (her parents and aunt who force Emily to have an abortion) Structurally, Emily tells her story and then that chapter is followed by a poem summing up her questions and feelings; the book is also interspersed by Emily Dickinson's poems that Emily is studying. Emily's poems are great. I am not sure why the story had to be set in 1995 and I found this distracting. - Yvette/Merrimack

Shooting, death, teen pregnancy, abortion, Emily Dickinson, poetry, friendship, redemption. Good book...for high school readers. Nancy/former Madbury