SWEEPING UP THE HEART

This gorgeous and timeless novel about loss, loneliness, and friendship from two-time Newbery Honor author Kevin Henkes tells the story of the spring break that changes seventh-grader Amelia Albright's life...forever.

Amelia dreams about going to Florida for spring break like everyone else in her class, but instead is stuck at home with her cranky and conservative English professor father and her babysitter, the beloved Mrs. O'Brien. The week ahead promises to be boring until Amelia meets Casey, a fellow spring break refugee, at her local art studio. Amelia has never been friends with a boy before, and the experience is both fraught and thrilling. When Casey claims to see the spirit of Amelia's mother (who died ten years ago) crossing the street, the pair embark on a different sort of journey.

Crisp, lyrical, literary writing; moments of humor and truth; an intriguing mystery, as well as themes of family, death, grief, first love, creativity, and loyalty are the hallmarks of this classic Kevin Henkes novel.

Kevin Henkes is the author and illustrator of more than fifty critically acclaimed and award-winning picture books, beginning readers, and novels. He received the Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon in 2005, and Waiting won a Caldecott Honor and Geisel Honor in 2016. Kevin Henkes is also the creator of a number of picture books featuring his mouse characters, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Lilly's Big Day and Wemberly Worried, the Caldecott Honor Book Owen, and the beloved Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. Bruce Handy, in a New York Times Book Review piece about A Good Day, wrote, "It should be said: Kevin Henkes is a genius." Kevin Henkes received two Newbery Honors for novelsone for The Year of Billy Miller and the other for Olive's Ocean. Also among his fiction for older readers are the novels Junonia, Bird Lake Moon, The Birthday Room, and Sun & Spoon. Kevin Henkes has been published by Greenwillow Books since the release of his first book, All Alone, in 1981