Paper Covers Rock

Jenny Hubbard

- 4.3 • 4 Ratings

- $4.99

- $4.99

Michael L. Printz Honor Award-winning author of And We Stay Jenny Hubbard’s powerful debut novel.

“One of the best young adult books I’ve read in years.”—PAT CONROY

“Paper Covers Rock is dazzling in its intensity and intelligence, spell-binding in its terrible beauty.” —KATHI APPELT, author of the Newbery Honor Book The Underneath

Sixteen-year-old Alex has just begun his junior year at a boys’ boarding school when he fails to save a friend from drowning in a river on campus. Afraid to reveal the whole truth, Alex and Glenn, who was also involved, decide to lie. But the boys weren’t the only ones at the river that day . . . and they soon learn that every decision has a consequence.

A William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist
A Booklist Editors’ Choice
A Horn Book Fanfare
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Flying Start Author
A Booklist Top 10 First Novel for Youth
An ABC Top 10 New Voices Selection

* “The poignant first-person narration is a deftly woven mixture of confessional entries, class assignments, poems, and letters. . . . [A] tense dictation of secrets, lies, manipulation, and the ambiguity of honor.” —The Horn Book Magazine, Starred

* "In the tradition of John Knowles’s A Separate Peace. . . . A powerful, ambitious debut.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred

* "Those who are looking for something to ponder will enjoy this compelling read.” —School Library Journal, Starred

* “This novel introduces Hubbard as a bright light to watch on the YA literary scene.” —Booklist, Starred

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY APR 25, 2011

Following in the tradition of John Knowles's A Separate Peace, this eloquent first novel set in 1982 at an all-male boarding school explores circumstances surrounding the accidental death of a student. Seventeen-year-old Thomas's obituary states that he died "as the result of a swimming accident," but his classmate Alex knows that's not the whole story. He attempts to explain what really happened to Thomas in the pages of his secret journal, yet the more he writes the more complicated the truth becomes. Hubbard leads readers down a twisting path to extract bits of truth from journal entries layered with emotion and warped by deception. A day of reckoning forces Alex to choose between his encouraging English teacher, with whom he is desperately infatuated, and the school's golden boy, Glen. Hubbard has a superb handle on her boarding school setting, as Alex, a gifted writer who's influenced by Melville and the poetry they study, turns his eye on the inextricably entwined forces of honor, loyalty, masculinity, and sexuality that dominate the Birch School, as well as his guilt and search for identity. A powerful, ambitious debut. Ages 14 up.

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