Dana Reinhardt's (The Summer I Learned to Fly) gripping, realistic novel tells of two extremely close sisters, Nell and Layla Golden, whose relationship unravels because of a secret.
Nell's first-person narrative addresses Layla directly. A sense of foreboding and a pulsing urgency permeates the book as Nell recalls the signs that pointed to trouble: Layla's charcoal self-portrait with "sorrowful, faraway eyes" and a sculpture that makes Nell wonder "if that was who you wished you were and how you could ever want to be anything other than who you are." As Nell starts her freshman year at City Day, Layla is a junior, a star soccer player and is known for having "a good head on her shoulders." Nell makes the team, too, despite the teasing of her best friend, Felix De La Cruz ("Didn't you get the memo that this is a hipster-urban high school?"). Layla is not acting like herself, and tension simmers between the sisters. But then rumors begin to fly around the school, as they do every year, that cool Mr. Barr, the Intro to Visual Arts teacher, is involved with a student. Only this time, the rumors point to Layla.
Reinhart beautifully captures the messy passage from adolescence to adulthood. Part of Nell wants to stay the child, while the other part knows she must follow her own moral compass. Is it her responsibility to keep her sister's secret? Or to protect her, perhaps against her wishes? Reinhardt gets this delicate balance just right, and leaves readers thinking long after the last page. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness