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Miles from Ordinary

by Carol Lynch Williams

A summer day shaped by family and uncertainty

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A summer day shaped by family and uncertainty

Thirteen-year-old Lacey is preparing to start a library job on the same day her mother is meant to begin work at a grocery store. The family needs the income, and Lacey hopes her mother’s recent improvement will hold. As memories return and the day veers away from those expectations, the story centers on a daughter’s love for her mother and the difficult realities of living together. The library and grocery-store jobs anchor the opening in ordinary responsibilities, while the mother’s past and present well-being place pressure on Lacey’s hopes for a more settled life.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Teens and young adults interested in family-centered fiction.
  • Readers who want a story about a young person navigating a parent’s struggles.
  • Readers interested in stories about love, memory, and family responsibility.

Themes

Parent-child relationshipsMental health and family lifeMemoryResponsibility and hope

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"Imagine Anna Quindlen or Sue Miller turning her attention to writing a young adult novel, and you have an idea what [Williams] has done for early teen readers..." --Audrey Couloumbis, author of the Newbery Honor Book Getting Close to Baby

Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother's ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control....

"No one can get inside the head and heart of a 13-year-old girl better than Carol Lynch Williams, and I mean no one," said James S. Jacobs, Professor of Children's Literature at Brigham Young University, of her breakout novel, The Chosen One. Now, with Miles from Ordinary, this award-winning YA author brings us an equally gripping story of a girl who loves her mother, but must face the truth of what life with that mother means for both of them.

Miles from Ordinary was recently named to The American Libray Associations 2012 list of Best Fiction for Young Adults. The Chosen One was named one of 2012's Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults by the ALA.

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