The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance - Hardcover

CATHERINE RYAN HYDE is the author of four other young adult novels:  Becoming Chloe, Jumpstart the World, The Day I Killed James , and  Diary of a Witness . She is the best-selling and award-winning author of 20 published and forthcoming books, including the acclaimed WHEN YOU WERE OLDER, DON'T LET ME GO, SECOND HAND HEART, WHEN I FOUND YOU. New Kindle editions of her backlist titles FUNERALS FOR HORSES, EARTHQUAKE WEATHER AND OTHER STORIES, ELECTRIC GOD, and WALTER'S PURPLE HEART are now available. Forthcoming frontlist titles are WALK ME HOME and WHERE WE BELONG. Her bestselling novel PAY IT FORWARD inspired the movie of the same name. The Richard and Judy Book Club, the UK's equivalent of the Oprah book club, launched LOVE IN THE PRESENT TENSE and subsequent novels onto the bestseller list in the UK. Learn much more about the author, maybe even more than you wanted to know, at catherineryanhyde.com.

Grade 7–10—Cynnie's mother drowns her problems in alcohol and inappropriate men, leaving the 13-year-old to care for her 3-year-old brother, Bill. He has Down syndrome, and he is the one bright spot in her life. When her mother sends him to live with his grandparents, Cynnie is shattered. To cover up her pain, she tries her first drink and is soon drinking daily in the tree house she built with neighborhood boys. One of them, Snake, makes awkward attempts at friendship, but she rejects them. When he offers to help her run away with Bill, though, she jumps at the chance. Her drinking gets in the way, however, and she nearly kills all of them in a car accident. Horribly ashamed, and separated even further from her brother, she is required to go to court-ordered AA meetings. One woman, Pat, becomes her sponsor and, eventually, mother figure. She helps Cynnie to make amends with the people she's hurt and learn to forgive herself. Once she does this, she can reach out to those who had wanted to help her all along. Hyde illustrates well how quickly a person can fall into the same patterns that they abhor in others, or choose a different path. Cynnie's internal conflict between wanting to be seen by those around her and trying to disappear, either into her tree house or alcohol, is very well drawn. Troubled teens may be able to find some of themselves in her. This is a heavy novel, and will probably require some pushing, but it is a good discussion starter.—Stephanie L. Petruso, Anne Arundel County Public Library, Odenton, MD
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