The Deepest Breath
by Meg Grehan (Author)
An accessible and beautifully written middle grade novel-in-verse by award-winning Irish author Meg Grehan about Stevie, a young girl reckoning with anxiety about the many things she has yet to understand--including her feelings about her friend Chloe. Perfect for fans of Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World, Star Crossed, and George.
11-year-old Stevie is an avid reader and she knows a lot of things about a lot of things. But these are the things she'd like to know the most:
- The ocean and all the things that live there and why it's so scary
- The stars and all the constellations
- How phones work
- What happened to Princess Anastasia
- Knots Knowing things makes Stevie feel safe, powerful, and in control should anything bad happen.
And with the help of her mom, she is finding the tools to manage her anxiety. But there's one something Stevie doesn't know, one thing she wants to understand above everything else, and one thing she isn't quite ready to share with her mom: the fizzy feeling she gets in her chest when she looks at her friend, Chloe. What does it mean and why isn't she ready to talk about it? In this poetic exploration of identity and anxiety, Stevie must confront her fears to find inner freedom all while discovering it is our connections with others that make us stronger.
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Publishers Weekly
In spacious verse that mirrors a worried preteen's breathlessness, Grehan (The Space Between) vibrantly captures the anxious inner landscape of 11-year-old Stevie, an Irish girl missing her estranged father and harboring a secret crush on her friend Chloe. "Knowing things/ Makes me safe," she declares, a magical-thinking mantra that inspires her to read thick books on marine life. But just as often, she looks to her warm, wise mother for reassurance. Her mum's words are usually a gift, but they scan as an empty box when she fails to see her daughter's budding queerness ("She just gave me/ Wrapping paper/ With tape and ribbon and a bow/ But nothing/ Inside"). Though a comforting librarian offers hope to the girl, Grehan effectively depicts the loneliness of growing up in a world where heterocentrism is the default. Small in scope and big in heart and feeling, this novel is a tender portrait of gay early adolescence and a strong mother-daughter attachment. Ages 8-12. Agent: Karyn Fischer, Book Stop Literary. (Feb.)
Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
JUV057000 - Juvenile Fiction | Stories in Verse (see also Poetry)
JUV039240 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Depression & Mental Illness
JUV060000 - Juvenile Fiction | LGBT
Novels in verse
Mothers and daughters
Self-acceptance
Lesbians
Coming out (Sexual orientation)
Identity (Psychology) in children
