Here are the details of the book:
Title: Sign Language
Author: Amy Ackley
Description: Twelve-year-old Abby North's first hint that something is wrong with her dad is the scar that appears on his stomach after he goes in for kidney surgery Soon, the thing she calls "It" has a real name: cancer. Before, her biggest concerns were her annoying brother, the crush unaware of her existence,and her changing feelings for her best friend, Spence, the boy across the street. Now, her mother cries in the shower, her father is exhausted, and nothing is normal anymore.
Amy Ackley's impressive debut, winner of teh first Amazon Breakthrough YA Novel award, is wrenching, heartbreaking, and utterly true.
About The Author: Amy Ackley is a mother of three whose career has run gamut from public administration to labor relations. A storyteller since childhood, Ackley left home at the age of sixteen, and the need to support herself caused her to abandon writing fiction for many years. She picked up a pen again after her first child was born, and se began writing Sign Language seven years ago (eleven years ago now). She and her family live in Brighton, Michigan.
Sign Language was drawn from the loss of Ackley's father to cancer when she was a teen.
Excerpt:
Leslie gasped. "You're dad didn't know his cancer was terminal? Oh my gosh, that has to be so hard...that it happened so unexpectedly, I mean."
"No," Abby said, her eyes following a daddy longlegs crawlingalong the base of the wall, "we knew the cancer was terminal."
Leslie sat in silent confusion.
"I knew my dad was going to pass away," Abby tried to explain, knowing Leslie wouldnever understand. "I didn't know he was going to be dead."
Reviews/Comments:
"You can't help but want Abby to finally discover her own kind of peace, and readers will be pulling for her throughout her journey." ~Sarah Dessen
"Tells it's story beautifully and movingly, and it earns its hopeful ending. Ackley is without question a talented writer." ~Nancy Werlin, author of the New York Times bestseller Impossible
