cover image Promise Me Something

Promise Me Something

Sara Kocek. Albert Whitman Teen, $16.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-8075-6641-1

When Reyna Fey’s house is redistricted, it means she’ll be starting high school at Belltown High, while all her friends will attend nearby Ridgeway. Seven years earlier, Reyna’s mother was killed by a drunk driver, and a recent car accident nearly did the same to her father, so Reyna is angry and scared when blunt, bossy, and painfully unpopular Olive Barton bounds into her life. “You’re the only person in this school who needs a friend as much as me,” Olive tells Reina, who can’t exactly disagree. They begin a tentative friendship, but Olive doesn’t fit in with Reyna’s increasingly distant friends from middle school, and when Olive shares a deeply held secret about herself, Reyna’s reaction, born in part out of her own conservative upbringing, has potentially devastating consequences. Kocek’s hard-hitting first novel offers smart dialogue, sharp descriptions, and a plot that unfolds in unexpected ways, as she explores the destructive power of casual, everyday homophobia, especially in a claustrophobic high school environment where adults and students are content to look the other way. Ages 13–up. Agent: Logan Garrison, Gernert Company. (Sept.)