This book is so real.  It’s about a subject that no one really wants to talk about but Jandy Nelson takes it and makes this beautiful story out of it.

It is about Lennie Walker and what happens to her after her sister Bailey dies.  She starts writing little poems on everything she can find; gum wrappers, scraps of paper, bathroom walls, barn walls, to-go cups; and buries them under pine straw or just drops them where she writes them.  This was such a good story because it explains how you become a different person when someone you love is suddenly gone, and it explains it in the most real, heart-breaking way.  If you’ve ever lost someone you love, this book will be all too real to you.  The other part of the story is, of course, about love and how Lennie finds her first boyfriend.  And about Lennie and Toby, Bailey’s boyfriend.  Things get complicated between the three of them, but through that Lennie figures out who she is and who she wants to be now that her older sister is gone.

Beautiful, descriptive writing, along with a story that anyone can relate to, create this wonderful book that you need to go out and read now!