How to Be a Girl in the World by Caela Carter

If you can achieve that, through art, talent, AND EDITING, then I officially bestow upon you a Fiction writing MFA, no student loan debt necessary. Sixteen words construct the backbone of this whole novel. And/or the character you are about to follow for the whole book thinks something assumed to be cool is actually crap, and that tells you loads more about them, too. Your impression of the world has completely flipped.

The moon! That you can casually go to! Actually sucks!!!! Look how that colors everything you’ve already painted in your mind Those moon roller coasters are boring! The moon mall is half boarded up! Everything is overpriced! Of course, the reader doesn’t know if these specifics bear out yet, but it doesn’t matter. And no one can pull off a snarky reversal like this but a teen. If you didn’t already know, this is a YA novel. This is where the author turns on the voice.

Zero G roller coasters? Kitschy astronaut ice cream parlors? Jetson’s-style space malls under glass domes? Three little words bring all this to mind!!īUT THE MOON TURNED OUT TO COMPLETELY SUCKĪnd here’s the kicker. These three worlds also contribute to world building because you start to imagine what activities or events would make the moon fun. I mean, I would go to the moon to have fun if that were possible, so maybe this is just speaking to me personally. That, to me, paints a certain kind of character in my mind. Even though we don’t know who the “we” are yet, we do know that going to the moon is their idea of fun. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, Kathryn Erskine’s Mockingbird, and Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish, this powerful novel about love and family will inspire and delight readers of all ages.More world building! But these three words actually tell you a lot about character. So along with their new mother, Flora and Julian begin a journey to go back and discover their past-for only then can they really begin to build their future. Though Flora is trying her best to trust two new people, when she finds out that there will be a new baby, she’s worried that there won’t be enough love for everyone.

And even now that they’ve been adopted, Flora still struggles to believe that they’ve found their forever home. They’ve lived in so many foster homes, they can’t remember where they came from.

A New York Public Library Top Ten Books for Kids pick įrom rising star Caela Carter, author of My Life with the Liars and How to Be a Girl in the World, comes a captivating and heartfelt story about siblings who learn that love can never be divided, only multiplied.įlora and her brother, Julian, don’t believe they were born.

How to Be a Girl in the World by Caela Carter