Family

  • Interest Level: Grade 9 - Grade 12
  • Reading Level: Grade 9

I have always been broken. I could have died. And maybe it would have been better if i had.

It is a day like any other when seventeen-year-old Melinda hits the road for San Francisco, leaving behind her fractured home life and a constant assault on her self-esteem. Henry is the handsome, charismatic man who comes upon her, collapsed on a park bench, and offers love, a bright new consciousness, and—best of all—a family. One that will embrace her and give her love. Because family is what Mel has never really had. And this new family, Henry’s family, shares everything. They share the chores, their bodies, and their beliefs. And if Mel truly wants to belong, she will share in everything they do. No matter what the family does, or how far they go.

Told in episodic verse, Family is a fictionalized exploration of cult dynamics, loosely based on the Manson Family murders of 1969. It is an unflinching look at people who are born broken, and the lengths they’ll go to to make themselves “whole” again.

Format Your Price Add
978-1-60684-155-6
$13.49
978-1-5124-0351-0
$23.99
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Interest Level Grade 9 - Grade 12
Reading Level Grade 9
Genre Young Adult
Copyright 2011
Publisher Lerner Publishing Group
Imprint Carolrhoda Lab ®
Language English
Number of Pages 384
Publication Date 2011-01-01
Text Type Fiction
BISACS YAF058210, YAF024170, YAF034000
Dewey [Fic]
Dimensions 5.5 x 8.25
Lexile 900
ATOS Reading Level 4.3
Accelerated Reader® Quiz 143823
Accelerated Reader® Points 5.0
Features Author/Illustrator biography and Reviewed

Author: Micol Ostow

Micol Ostow has been writing professionally since 2004, and in that time has written and/or ghostwritten over 40 published works for young readers. She started her reign of terror with Egmont with her novel family, which Elizabeth Burns named a favorite of 2012 on her School Library Journal-syndicated blog, A Chair, a Fireplace, a Tea Cozy. Micol’s graphic novel, So Punk Rock (and Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother), was named a 2009 Booklist Top Ten Arts Books for Youth Selection, a Booklist Top Ten Religion Books for Youth Selection, and a Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Teens. She received her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and currently teaches a popular young-adult writing workshop through MediaBistro.com.

Reviews

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

“A fictionalized examination of cult behaviors in general and the Manson family in particular, told in episodic free verse, may not be for the faint of heart, but it makes for absorbing psychodrama.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Booklist

“Ostow’s Henry is fascinating, a pied piper hell-bent on reaching the masses, whether through love or terror.” —Booklist