Synopses & Reviews
It's 1963 and fourteen-year-old Esther Young is looking for excitement. Cursed with a lack of talent in a family filled with artistic types, Esther vows to get some attention by initiating a summer romance with a black teen accused of murdering a white man in Alabama.
King-Roy Johnson shows up on Esther's doorstep that summer, an angry young man who feels betrayed by the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. Sent north by his mother to escape a lynch mob, he meets a follower of Malcolm X's who uses radical teachings about black revolution to fuel King-Roy's anger and frustration. But with each other's help, both Esther and King-Roy learn the true nature of integrity and find the power to stand up for what is right and true.
National Book Award-winning author Han Nolan brings readers a bold new voice--by turns funny and poignant, innocent and worldly--in this powerful coming-of-age story set during the turbulent struggle for civil rights.
Review
"Readers will love Eleanor's openness and admire her strength in dealing with hard choices and unexpected disasters."--Publishers Weekly
Review
"Nolan presents a sensitive look at the difficulties of teen pregnancy. . .Drawing in both reluctant and avid readers, this novel is an uplifting page-turner with a great deal of heart."--
School Library Journal, starred review "Readers will love Eleanor's openness and admire her strength in dealing with hard choices and unexpected disasters."--
Publishers Weekly "As revealed in her first-person narration, Elly is passionate, smart-mouthed, rebellious and completely endearing. Secondary characters are similarly well-crafted, refusing to fit into stereotypes. Readers may feel like laughing, crying and grinding their teeth in frustration, but they will always feel like they are in the experienced hands of a master storyteller."--
Kirkus Reviews, starred review "National Book Award finalist Nolan has written a multilayered character study of Elly, a young woman angry at the adults in her life but enormously resourceful and capable of love. The issues she faces—teen pregnancy, immature boyfriends, bewildered and angry parents, whether to keep the baby, and even the problems of overweight campers—all have their origins in grief and control. How Elly plows through this complex morass both before and after the baby arrives makes for not only a strong story but a subtle object lesson as well."--
Booklist "The combination of camp story and problem novel give the book high appeal, and the characters are complex and sympathetic, particularly Elly as she works through her issues and grapples believably with the forced onset of adulthood."-Bulletin
Review
"Nolan leavens this haunting but hopeful story with spot-on humor and a well developed cast of characters, and she shows with moving clarity the emotional costs of mental illness, especially on teens forced to parent their own parents."—
Booklist, starred review
"In this distinct and effective blend of sorrow and humor, Jason, once invisible to his classmates and used to the chaos at home, suffers the effects of change when he's enrolled in a lunch-hour group therapy with other wayward teens and his father is taken away...he slowly learns, with the help of his new friends and foster parents, normalcy and how to care for himself first."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Nolan balances weighty subject matter with humor, offering an intelligent portrayal of a boy's slow release of burdens too heavy to carry alone."—Publishers Weekly
Review
"This deeply philosophical and psychologically complex novel will hold readers rapt..."
Synopsis
Sixteen-year-old Eleanor Crowe has a mind of her own and no one is going to tell her what to do. But when she finds herself pregnant, she realizes that her options are limited: go to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry Lam, the babys father, and live with his parents at their summer camp for overweight children.
Despite her initial reluctance to help out, Elly is surprised to discover that she actually enjoys working with the kids at campif not for her mother-in-laws constant disapproval. When her baby is born, unexpected emotions and situations spin out of control, and Elly has to call on her stubbornness and determination to step up and become an advocate for her futureand for the life she has created.
Synopsis
A thought-provoking and courageous new novel by National Book Award winner Han Nolan. Nobody gets away with telling Eleanor Crowe what to do. But as a pregnant sixteenyear-old, her options are limited: move to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry the babyand#8217;s father and work at his familyand#8217;s summer camp for overweight kids. Despite her initial reluctance to help out, Elly is surprised that she actually enjoys working with the campers. But a tragedy on the very day her baby is born starts a series of events that overwhelms Elly with unexpected emotions and difficult choices. Somehow, she must turn her usual obstinance in a direction that can ensure a future for herselfand#8212;and for the new life she has created.
Synopsis
National Book Award-winning author Han Nolan portrays a tough and defiant pregnant teen who discovers her strength and compassion—and courageous plan for her future—while working at a camp for overweight children.
Synopsis
«“Readers . . . will always feel like they are in the experienced hands of a master storyteller.” —
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Nobody gets away with telling sixteen-year-old Eleanor Crowe what to do. But as a pregnant teen, her options are limited: move to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry the babys father and work at his familys summer camp for overweight kids. She chooses marriage. A camp tragedy prompts a series of events that overwhelms Elly with difficult choices. Somehow, she must leverage her usual stubbornness to ensure a future for herself and her baby. A fascinating character study.
Synopsis
Miracle McCloy has always known that there is something different about her: She was pulled from the womb of a dead woman--a “miracle” birth--and Gigi, her clairvoyant grandmother, expects Miracle to be a prodigy, much like Dane, the girls brooding novelist father. Having been raised according to a set of mystical rules and beliefs, Miracle is unable to cope in the real world. Lost in a desperate dance among lit candles, Miracle sets herself afire and is hospitalized. There Dr. DeAngelis, a young psychiatrist, helps her through her painful struggle to take charge of her life.
Synopsis
James Patrick (JP) OBriens once safe and secure world quickly unravels with the death of his beloved grandmother. Grandma Mary had always been the guiding hand of the OBrien family, lovingly raising his mentally challenged Pap and allowing Mam to remain free of adult responsibility. Soon after Grandma Marys death, Mam wins a farmhouse in an essay contest and insists on sharing her good fortune with various neighborhood outcasts. As JP sees both Pap and himself being replaced in his mothers life by others, his anger pushes his family and friends further away. Its not until he begins to understand that he must learn to accept differences, human frailties, and the randomness of life that he recaptures his happiness and begins to grow as a person.
Synopsis
Janie . . . Leshaya . . . whatever shes called, shes a survivor. Rescued from the brink of death, this child of a heroin addict has seen it all: revolving foster homes, physical abuse, an unwanted pregnancy. Now, as her tumultuous childhood is coming to an end, she is determined not only to survive but to make a life for herself by doing the only thing that makes her feel whole . . . singing.
Born Blue is the hard-hitting story of a girl who searches for love and security despite the roadblocks in her way—a gritty story that inspires understanding, tolerance, and compassion. National Book Award winner Han Nolan introduces a heroine unlike any before. A girl with the voice of a woman. A woman with the dreams of a little girl. Readers will never forget Leshaya.
A portion of the sales from this book will be donated to the Monarch High School Project in San Diego, California.
Synopsis
National Book Award winner Han Nolan brings us a powerful story of a young boys intriguing method of emotional survival as his father slowly succumbs to mental illness.
Synopsis
Fifteen-year-old Jason has fallen upon bad times—his mother has died and his father has succumbed to mental illness. As he tries to hold his crazy father and their crumbling home together, Jason relies on a host of imaginary friends for guidance as he stumbles along trying not to draw attention to his fathers deteriorating condition.
Both heartbreaking and funny, CRAZY lives up to the intense and compelling characters Han Nolan is praised for. As Jason himself teeters on the edge of insanity, Nolan uncovers the clever coping system he develops for himself and throws him a lifeline in the guise of friendship.
Synopsis
One summer, one person, can change your life forever
Synopsis
A multilayered novel from a National Book Award winner
Synopsis
Archibald Caswell could never please his domineering granddaddy Silas. Now with Granddaddy gone, Archie finds himself lost, confused, and wondering what Granddaddy could possibly have meant by his dying words: "Young man, you are a saint!"
Clare Simpson knows exactly what Silas meant. She convinces Archie to dedicate his life to God, give up his possessions, steal his granddaddy's truck, and head north to the Cloisters in New York, where she and Archie secretly live after museum hours. For Clare, the journey is a return to the only place where she has felt happy and loved. For Archie, the pilgrimage leads him to a closer relationship with God--and a burning desire for home.
Synopsis
As sixteen-year-old Hilary, a neo-Nazi, lies wounded in a Jewish hospital, she slips into a coma and begins to relive the harrowing memories of Chana-a Jewish girl whose family was brutalized in the wartime ghettos and Nazi death camps of Poland. At the same time, Hilary begins to come to terms with difficult memories of her own. When she wakes, she finally finds herself on the path to recovery from a lifetime of rage and resentment. “Chanas story . . . is brilliantly rendered.”-Booklist
About the Author
HAN NOLAN is the author of
If I Should Die Before I Wake; the National Book Award finalist
Send Me Down a Miracle; the National Book Award winner
Dancing on the Edge; and
A Face in Every Window. She lives in New England.