The 9:09 Project

Two years after losing his mother to cancer, a Californian teenager channels his grief and loneliness into creative pursuits in this affecting literary offering from Parsons (Road Rash). When 17-year-old Jamison Deaver almost forgets his late mother’s birthday, he worries that he’s losing his memory of her, and embarks on a memorializing photography project. Using a Nikon she gave him, he takes pictures every evening at 9:09 p.m.—the time of her death—of the street corner he could see from her hospital room window. Some days, he photographs an empty intersection, but most days, there are people, and Jamison, who has felt extreme loneliness since her death, comforts himself by imagining these strangers’ lives. His newfound hobby also helps him reconnect with his younger fashionista sister, Ollie, and their withdrawn father. Despite the welcome kinship, though, Jamison struggles to navigate his personal project’s unexpected popularity after his best friend builds him a photography website. Utilizing intimately rendered characters and introspective dialogue, Parsons crafts a character-driven work that celebrates the healing power of connection and creativity, encouraging readers to take a closer look at the world around them. Characters cue as white. Ages 12–up. Agent: Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown. (Nov.)

Correction: The text of this review has been changed to update an instance of the author's last name.