Starred ReviewStarred Review Troublemakers
When she was three, Alena’s activist mother died. She’s been raised by her half-brother and his boyfriend in East London, which is being targeted by a lone bomber. Alena desperately wants to know about her mother, but her brother won’t tell her anything.
Alena’s played by the rules all her life, but that’s over. When she starts digging up information herself and does something that costs her brother his job and puts the family in jeopardy, Alena discovers she can be a troublemaker—just like her mother.
Now she must figure out what sort of trouble she’s willing to get into to find out the truth.
| Format | Your Price | Add |
|---|---|---|
|
978-1-5124-7549-4
|
$13.49 | |
|
978-1-5415-1671-7
|
$23.99 |
Awards
- Notable AwardNotable Award YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults
- Notable AwardNotable Award Children’s Book Committee at the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature Best Children’s Books of the Year
- Notable AwardNotable Award USBBY Outstanding International Books List
- Notable AwardNotable Award Kirkus Best Teen Books of the Year
Reviews
VOYA
“Readers will root for Alena. . . . [Give] to readers who like contemporary settings and issues.”—VOYA
Shelf Awareness
“Catherine Barter’s debut YA novel is a tense, subtle work about family and bringing secrets to light.”—Shelf Awareness
Booklist
“Barter’s debut displays impressive skill and authenticity . . .”—Booklist
Publishers Weekly
“Barter’s novel should appeal to a wide audience for its emotional honesty and its complex characters and relationships.”—Publishers Weekly
Starred ReviewStarred Review Kirkus Reviews
“Amid a thoroughly contemporary story about terrorism, email leaks, and a divisive political climate, Lena’s coming-of-age is wonderfully individual and heartbreakingly real.”—starred, Kirkus Reviews
Jessie Ann Foley
“Alena’s story is both timely and timeless. It beautifully navigates of-the-moment issues of modern politics and domestic terrorism with the enduring questions young people have always faced: what it means to be good, what it means to be brave, how to love, how to lose, how families make and remake themselves in the face of ever-changing dangers, both real and imagined.”—Jessie Ann Foley, author of Morris Award Finalist The Carnival at Bray
Bryan Bliss
“Troublemakers is a novel about what it means to be family—from inside jokes and warm conversations over cups of tea, to unspoken anxieties born out of deep love and terrible loss. Catherine Barter’s impressive debut will make you laugh, cry, and be thankful for the people in your lives who stand by you, no matter what.”—Bryan Bliss, author of National Book Award Longlist selection We’ll Fly Away