By Jenny Downham – Scholastic, 2016
Three generations of redheaded women have secrets that are holding them back from happiness. At 17, Katie is struggling–with her feelings for other girls, with her mother’s expectations, with who she wants to be versus how the world perceives her. When her long-lost grandmother, Mary, moves in, the two form a quick, tight relationship that transcends their age gap. Mary, who is seeing the ghosts of her past as she’s succumbing to dementia, recognizes Katie’s inner fire and stokes it with gentle, all-accepting love. Katie, in turn, commits herself to helping Mary navigate her tenuous grasp of past and present. Their bond, however, threatens the tightly controlled world that Caroline (estranged daughter of Mary, harried mother of Katie) has constructed for her tiny family. As they try to cope with Mary’s increasingly foggy mind, Caroline and Katie are forced to confront their own relationship, which, as it turns out, is tied up in Mary’s lost memories. From page one, this is a story of mothers and daughters, who hand down their hurt and resentment through the generations and sacrifice everything in the name of love.
