Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

THE SHAPE OF THUNDER

Jasmine Warga

An extraordinary new novel from Jasmine Warga, Newbery Honorwinning author of Other Words for Home, about loss and healing - and how friendship can be magical.

Cora hasn't spoken to her best friend, Quinn, in a year. Despite living next door to each other, they exist in separate worlds of grief. Cora is still grappling with the death of her beloved sister in a school shooting, and Quinn is carrying the guilt of what her brother did. On the day of Cora's twelfth birthday, Quinn leaves a box on her doorstep with a note. She has decided that the only way to fix things is to go back in time to the moment before her brother changed all their lives forever - and stop him. In spite of herself, Cora wants to believe. And so the two former friends begin working together to open a wormhole in the fabric of the universe. But as they attempt to unravel the mysteries of time travel to save their siblings, they learn that the magic of their friendship may actually be the key to saving themselves. The Shape of Thunder is a deeply moving story, told with exceptional grace, about friendship and loss - and how believing in impossible things can help us heal. Jasmine Warga is the author of the New York Times bestseller Other Words For Home. Other Words For Home earned multiple awards, including a John Newbery Honor, a Walter Honor for Young Readers, and a Charlotte Huck Honor. She is also the author of young adult books My Heart and Other Black Holes and Here We Are Now, which have been translated into over 20 languages.

Available products
Book Published 2021-05-11 by Balzer + Bray/ HarperCollins

Comments

[Cora and Quinn] are well developed, and Warga skillfully handles both their delicate, emotional friendship and larger subjects of grief and gun violence. Powerful and emotionally complex Read more...

The story builds steadily toward a moving conclusion; Warga's lyrical language and credible rendering of both middle school life and of the tensions of two families coping differently with personal devastation make for a perceptive, sensitively told novel about the effects of gun violence. Read more...

Warga limns a tale that downplays sensationalism while acknowledging the deep fear that many readers may carry regarding school shootings.

The Shape of Thunder is a beautiful friendship story about the love that is possible even when the worst has already happened.

Ms. Warga has crafted a story with a quiet power that will force you to look at life around you through a different viewpoint. That is why you need - why we all need - The Shape of Thunder in our lives.

Brimming with hope in the midst of a tragic loss, Jasmine Warga's The Shape of Thunder is a fierce and brilliant reminder of the healing power of friendship. Intimate, heartbreaking, and gut- wrenchingly honest, Jasmine Warga continually solidifies why she is one of the best middle grade writers around - and why Cora and Quinn's story will resonate especially with anyone who has lost a loved one. I am wholeheartedly in love with this book.

Warga skillfully develops unique voices for her narrators, and the novel's alternating-perspective structure works well. Emotions run high throughout the book without dragging down the plot, and the portrayal of middle-school life is utterly authentic.

Jasmine Warga has always been fearless in her novels for teens and young readers. In her piece in School Library Journal, Jasmine Warga writes about the importance of giving young people an opportunity to explore and challenge themselves: "Kids deserve books that make them feel seen, give them hope, and let them know that their voices and opinions matter. These are usually books that in some way challenge their reader -making them think about questions of courage and justice. By challenging the reader, these books let the reader know that they believe in them. Challenging books are also empowering books." Read more...

Young people will identify with Cora and Quinn's need to fix the big problems of the world with both science and a bit of magic. Through these two girl's emotional journeys after a violent shooting, readers will realize the importance of speaking up about hard things. An homage to Katherine Patterson's Bridge to Terabithia, Jasmine Warga's The Shape of Thunder is an important and gorgeously written classic in its own right.