One moment 14-year-old Sarabeth Silver's life is all her own, quirky mom and all. The next minute, she's spinning out of control, her mother dead of a heart attack at 30, family friends debating who should take her in, her home rented to another family, her stuff in storage. And Sarabeth herself changes. She becomes jagged, cynical. Her funny, loyal friends stand by her side, but nothing is the same anymore. The loss of her mother, conversations with her new friend James, and her uncomfortable living situation with her mom's best friend, her husband, and their baby--in a one-bedroom apartment--inspire Sarabeth to embark (with great trepidation) on a journey to trace her mysterious roots. The town where her parents grew up--and were later shunned--reveals some very unexpected secrets that ultimately provide the starting place for Sarabeth's healing.

Continuing the story of Sarabeth begun in Silver, award-winning novelist Norma Fox Mazer plumbs the depths of adolescent souls. Girlhearts unflinchingly explores the unthinkable, refusing to drift into sentimentality or easy fixes. Mazer's keen eye for what is important makes her one of the finest, most tuned-in young-adult authors around. She is also the author of the Newbery Honor Book, After the Rain and many other fine titles for older readers. (Ages 12 to 16) --Emilie Coulter

Mom held me around the waist, and I bent and kissed her. "I love you, honey," she said. "Love you, too." It was automatic. That's what I can't forget.

When a heart attack takes her mom's life, Sarabeth suddenly loses the only family and home she has ever known. Cynthia and Billy, friends of her mother, take in Sarabeth to live with them and their baby in their tiny one-bedroom apartment. Before long it becomes clear to Sarabeth that she is a burden to them, an intrusion in their lives. She wants to leave, but where can she go?

With startling emotional accuracy and depth, Newbery Honor-winning author Norma Fox Mazer captures what it's like to lose everything but the memories of a home and a mother, and to gain the courage to heal deep wounds.