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What I Leave Behind
Contributor(s): McGhee, Alison (Author)
ISBN: 1481476572     ISBN-13: 9781481476577
Publisher: Atheneum Books
OUR PRICE:   $10.79  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: May 2019
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes - Emotions & Feelings
- Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes - Sexual Abuse
- Young Adult Fiction | Social Themes - Friendship
Dewey: FIC
LCCN: 2017001373
Lexile Measure: 550
Physical Information: 0.6" H x 5.2" W x 8.2" (0.40 lbs) 224 pages
Themes:
- Catalog Heading - Hi Interest/Low Vocabulary
- Curriculum Strand - Hi Interest/Low Vocabulary
- Topical - Friendship
- Topical - Death/Dying
- Topical - Family
- Locality - Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
- Cultural Region - Southern California
- Geographic Orientation - California
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
"An artful exercise in melancholy...Every reader will love openhearted Will." --Booklist (starred review)
"Haunting, introspective." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Emotionally raw... A] piercing narrative." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"McGhee artfully illustrates the tangled web wherein grief intertwines with the mundane." --BCCB

After his dad dies of suicide, Will tries to overcome his own misery by secretly helping the people around him in this exquisitely crafted story made up of one hundred chapters of one hundred words each, by award-winning and bestselling author Alison McGhee.

Sixteen-year-old Will spends most of his days the same way: Working at the Dollar Only store, trying to replicate his late father's famous cornbread recipe, and walking the streets of Los Angeles. Will started walking after his father committed suicide, and three years later he hasn't stopped. But there are some places Will can't walk by: The blessings store with the chest of 100 Chinese blessings in the back, the bridge on Fourth Street where his father died, and his childhood friend Playa's house.

When Will learns Playa was raped at a party--a party he was at, where he saw Playa, and where he believes he could have stopped the worst from happening if he hadn't left early--it spurs Will to stop being complacent in his own sadness and do some good in the world. He begins to leave small gifts for everyone in his life, from Superman the homeless guy he passes on his way to work, to the Little Butterfly Dude he walks by on the way home, to Playa herself. And it is through those acts of kindness that Will is finally able to push past his own trauma and truly begin to live his life again. Oh, and discover the truth about that cornbread.


Contributor Bio(s): McGhee, Alison: - Alison McGhee is the New York Times bestselling author of Someday, as well as Dear Sister, Maybe a Fox, Firefly Hollow, Little Boy, So Many Days, Star Bright, A Very Brave Witch, and the Bink and Gollie books. Her other children's books include All Rivers Flow to the Sea, Countdown to Kindergarten, and Snap. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Laguna Beach, California. You can visit her at AlisonMcGhee.com.