THE GRAY

Chris Baron, whose previous two books were in verse, now comes out with a book written in prose! This is a sensitively told middle grade story about living with anxiety and finding ways to cope.

Sasha Cohen might seem like a typical, New York City 7th grader who planned on spending his summer playing and designing video games and making YouTube videos. But Sasha struggles with anxiety. He starts to spend more time in what he calls, "The Gray" a strange and murky place he seems to enter into when his attacks get overwhelming. When a severe incident at school goes too far, Sasha's parents decide to send him to spend time in the country with his Aunt Cookie. She lives upstate near a sleepaway camp that she and her husband Uncle Lou used to run. Uncle Lou, also dealt with an anxiety disorder his whole life.

Out at the horse ranch near Aunt Cookie's house Sasha meets Duke, a huge old horse, but when Duke gets spooked, Sasha falls off of him and fades into The Gray. This time, there is someone else there with him. Eli is a messy, angry, and very quiet kid, and this is the start of what will become an unlikely friendship between the boys. But Eli also has secrets and when those secrets catch up to him, it's up to Sasha to save Eli, and maybe even find a way to save himself.

Chris Baron is the award winning author of Novels for Children including the novels in verse, ALL OF ME, an NCTE Notable Book, and THE MAGICAL IMPERFECT a Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable Book, a SLJ and NYPL Best Book of 2021 & the forthcoming novels, THE GRAY(2023) and FOREST HEART(2024) from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan. He's a contributor to the Young Adult Anthology, EVERY BODY SHINES, (2021) from Bloomsbury, and the author of Lantern Tree: (2012 CityWorks Press), winner of San Diego Book Award. He is a Professor of English at San Diego City College and the director of the Writing Center. He has an MFA in Poetry from SDSU. Originally from New York City, he now lives in San Diego with his family.