Squad

By: Mariah MacCarthy

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Paperback | 10 March 2020

At a Glance

Paperback
256 Pages

Age
12+

Grade
7 - 12

Dimensions(cm)
20.8 x 13.5 x 1.47

Paperback

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Ryann Bird dreams of traveling across the stars. But she settles for acting out and skipping school.

Until she meets Alexandria, a furious loner. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, the girls are brought together despite themselves—and Ryann learns Alexandria’s secret: Her mother is an astronaut on a one-way trip past the edge of the solar system.

Every night, Alexandria waits for radio signals from her mother. And now Ryann lifts Alexandria onto the roof day after day, until the silence between them grows into friendship . . . and eventually something more.

About the Author

K. Ancrum grew up in Chicago, Illinois, under the illusory rigor of the Chicago public school system. She attended Dominican University to study fashion merchandizing, but was lured into an English degree after spending too many nights experimenting with hard literary criticism and hanging out with unsavory types, like poetry students. Currently, she lives in River North, Chicago, and writes books at work when no one is looking.

Industry Reviews

*A Washington Blade Springs Arts 2019 Book List Pick*

"Jenna may not get everything she wants by the end of the book, but what she does get, she works for, and that makes for a satisfying journey. Squad is a short, highly concentrated blast of a book that revels in all the best and worst feelings of high school and offers the reader a charismatic and imperfect character to fall in love with. Jenna certainly won me over, and so did Squad." --NPR

"An openhearted debut that, like Jenna herself, has wonderfully surprising depth." --Booklist

"Plenty of books for young readers take on the subject of overt, aggressive bullying; this novel follows a less traveled and surprisingly substantive theme of a girl whose sense of self, forged in a pressure cooker of high expectations, is challenged in ways that cause her to misread situations and transform, momentarily, into a bully herself." --Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"An authentic, relatable voice . . . debut novelist MacCarthy pulls off this concoction of topics with aplomb, matter-of-factly introducing Jenna's feelings for James and treating cheer and LARP with equal earnestness. The resolution is satisfyingly realistic . . . an affirming story." --Horn Book

"Upon finishing this book, I realized it was the first cheerleader narrative I have read that shows their lives beyond the glamour, as the featured cheerleaders create meaningful ties with Live Action Role Players (LARPers) and queer culture."--Lithium Magazine

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