YA Fiction about Sisters ------------------------ compiled by Kimberly Paone (KPaone@njpublib.org) from posts to YALSA-BK, January 2001 Ask Me Something Easy by Natalie Honeycutt ('91) Rimwalkers by Vicki Grove ('93) I Miss You, I Miss You! by Peter Pohl ('98) Memories of Summer by Ruth White Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson The Other Shepards by Adele Griffin The Book of the Banshee, Anne Fine Sister in the Shadow, Anne Warren Smith One Sister Too Many, C.S.Adler The Lump in the Middle, C.S. Adler Split Sisters, C.S. Adler Where the Lilies Bloom, Vera Cleaver Into the Forest by Jean Heglund is excellent -- it is the story of teen-aged sisters Nell and Eva, and their struggle to adjust and survive in rural isolation after the breakdown of civilization. At the risk of sounding like a censor -- this book has some sections which may be objectionable to some readers, so depending on your patron, you may wish to give it a look yourself, first. Two books come to mind. The first is _Dreamland_ by Sarah Dessen. It doesn't have a lot of interaction between the sisters since the older sister leaves home at the beginning of the book, but I think it deals with the closeness sisters feel. Another book I really enjoyed is _My Sister's Bones_ by Cathi Hanauer. It deals with one sister's attempt to deal with her older sister's anorexia. Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN Diana Wynne Jones's HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE "How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" comes to mind immediately. I also came across the following in Novelist... Always, Julia (Marcia Wood) Jane's letters from her sister Julia, an aspiring writer living in New York City, help Jane deal with the pressures of growing up. Lena (Jacqueline Woodson) Thirteen-year-old Lena and her younger sister Dion mourn the death of their mother as they hitchhike from Ohio to Kentucky while running away from their abusive father. It's a little old (1986) but what about Don't Blame the Music by Caroline Cooney? Susan is looking forward to her senior year in high school when her sister Ashley (who has been AWOL for three years) returns home. Ashley has failed to make it as a rock star and comes home angry and miserable. Ashley quickly changes the dynamics of the family and Susan's "perfect" senior year is turned upside down. I just read an outstanding book called _Stop Pretending: What Happened When my Big Sister Went Crazy_ by Sonya Sones. The book is written completely in poetry (usually one poem per page) which I believe allows for a much more emotional expression of the topic and tells the story of the year directly after the writer's older sister suffers a nervous breakdown. It speaks of the loss the family suffers and how this affects almost everything the younger sister thinks and experiences. At the end, Sones reveals that her older sister really did have an emotional breakdown and how it affected her. She was taking a poetry class when she began writing poems about the experience at the behest of her teacher. She also gives numbers and addresses to help people in the same situation deal with family members who are suffering from mental illness. I think it's out of print now, but Susan Beth Pfeffer did a series of about five books called the Sebastian Sisters. Each title focused on one of the sisters at age 16, and the last book was about the mother when she was 16. The individual titles were Evvie at Sixteen, Sybil at Sixteen, etc. Also: Three Sisters, Norma Fox Mazer Chicago Blues, Julie Reece Deaver What Girls Learn, Karin Cook McKillip, Patricia Winter Rose The McKillip is an adult fantasy that has been popular with the members of both my middle school and high school Best Books Clubs. Two sisters in love with the same man, who has his own serious secret. The world of Faerie and Humanity intertwine. Beautifully written. Williams-Garcia, Rita Like Sisters on the Homefront The two teens in the Williams-Garcia are actually cousins, but they wind up becoming as close as sisters. The one is from New York City and is pregnant -- again -- when the novel opens. Her mother takes her and forces her to have an abortion and then sends her and her baby (a two-year old I think) south to live with the mother's brother -- a preacher in a small town. They haven't talked in years, but now she wants her daughter to stay with him and get her away from the married man in the neighborhood -- the father of both her babies. The cousin is a perfect daughter, sings in the choir, helps out around the house, would never get in trouble -- or would she? They start out with absolutely nothing in common and wind up "like sisters on the homefront." This title and the following one both made ALA's Best Books for Young Adults List. Williams, Carol Lynch True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson They are young -- 12 and 10 (or something like that) -- the victims of an abusive, negligent mother. In fact, she packs up and leaves the girls on their own completely. The older girl takes on the responsibility for the care of the younger, until a near drowning convinces her that they have got to make the long and hazardous trip to grandmother's house, even though they know how angry that will make their mother when she comes back. Quarles, Heather A Door Near Here The older sister holds the family together while the mother lies in a drunken stupor upstairs. Very popular with my teens. There are three younger siblings -- a boy (14), a gril (13) and a baby sister (8) who is the one looking for the Door Near Here, the door to Narnia so that Aslan can come back and save them. Rodowsky, Colby Remembering Mog Mog is dead -- killed in a senseless act of violence right after her HS graduation. Now her younger sister is her age, still trying to cope with Mog's loss, and wondering what is going to become of her. Dessen, Sarah That Summer Sarah Dessen's first, and still one of my favorite's. The older sister is getting married, the mother is spending all her time to cope with her demands, and the younger sister is feeling left out, neglected, and attracted to the boy her sister broke up with. I love Sarah Dessen's female characters. Hanauer, Cathi My Sister's Bones Again, an adult book with a lot of teen appeal. The older sister is at college and in serious trouble, but only the younger sister seems realize just how much danger she is in. Mazer, Norma Fox When She Was Good Very powerful picture of an abusive relationship, with the younger sister so frightened of the older that she wants the coffin nailed shut to keep her from getting out after she dies. Absolutely riveting. Do You Call That a Dream Date? - Mary Anderson. Fourteen-year-old Jennifer overlooks the consequences and uses an essay written by her older sister as her entry in a school contest that is offering a date with a famous rock star to the winner. Losing Louisa - Judith Caseley. Sixteen-year-old Lacey worries about the effect of her parents' divorce on her family, especially her mother, and about her older sister's sexual activity, which may have made her pregnant. Weekend Sisters - Hila Colman. Fourteen-year-old Amanda's comfortable practice of spending weekends with her divorced father is disrupted when he announces plans to remarry, providing her with a stepmother and a new sister her own age. Twenty Pageants Later - Caroline B. Cooney. As the younger and plainer sister of a frequent beauty contest winner, fourteen-year-old Scottie-Ann has always had mixed feelings about such competitions especially when she finds herself a reluctant contestant in the Marsh Mid Princess Pageant. Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie - Jan Greenberg. A shy, artistic, fifteen-year-old girl struggles to become more assertive in dealing with her repressive parents, a rebellious older sister, and a reckless boyfriend who enjoys shoplifting. A Summer To Die - Lois Lowry Thirteen-year-old Meg envys her sister's beauty and popularity. Her feelings don't make it any easier for her to cope with Molly's strange illness and eventual death. Is Everyone Moonburned But Me? - Stella Pevsner. Thirteen-year-old Hannah feels plain and drab compared to her older and younger sisters, but when both of her divorced parents seem on the verge of remarriage and a series of crises face the family, she is the only one who manages to keep her sanity. Family of Strangers - Susan Beth Pfeffer. Through letters and essays, emotionally disturbed sixteen-year-old Abby chronicles her growing desperation in a family consisting of parents who seem devoid of love, one older sister bent on self-destruction, and another older sister who has always seemed perfect. My Sister Is Driving Me Crazy - Mary E. Ryan. Tired of being an identical twin, thirteen-year-old Mattie seeks her own identity. Baby Sister - Marilyn Sachs. Fifteen-year-old Penny enjoys living in the shadow of her idolized older sister, who is quirky, self-centered, impossible, and loved by everyone. Thirteen Going On Seven - Marilyn Sachs. When her twin sister begins to assert her individuality and her grandmother suddenly dies, thirteen-year-old Dezzey finds some comfort in her relationships with her grandfather and a new friend and in an interest in the environment. Liza's Blue Moon - Diane Stevens. Liza, a sensitive thirteen-year-old who wants to be a writer, thinks about her relationship with her best friend, her jealousy of her sister, her feelings about herself, her worries about her parents' marriage, and her interest in a boy at school. Carolina Autumn - Carol Lynch Williams. As she begins high school, fourteen-year-old Carolina tries to come to terms with the death of her father and older sister, while dealing with difficult relationships with her mother and best friend and a budding romance with the boy next door. Some might recommend the adult novel Drowning Ruth, the Oprah pick that's hot right now. When I Was Older Freymann-Weyr Durable Goods Berg, Elizabeth Pictures 1918 Ingold, Jeanette Perfect family Jerrie Oughton Alvarez - In the Time of Butterflies Bridgers - Sara Will Calvert - Stone Pony Brooks - Two Moons in August Traveling on into the light Grant- Phoenix Rising Johnson - Humming Whispers What about Lois Duncan's I Know What You Did Last Summer? It has sisters in it.