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Something Like Hope

Something Like Hope will break your heart and then slowly put it back together in a new and profound way. You will not forget this book.”

–Matt De La Pena, author of I Will Save You
 

“Shavonne’s voice—witty, tender, explicit, and tough—will grab readers. In the tradition of Walter Dean Myers’ and Jacqueline Woodson’s novels, this winner of Delacorte’s 2009 prize for best YA debut gets behind the statistics to tell it like it is.”

Booklist (Starred Review)
 

“Goodman's portrait of a life in crisis is heart–and mind–and gut-wrenching.”

The Horn Book
 

“Those teens who applauded the urban survivors in Sapphire’s Push (Vintage, 1998) and Coe Booth’s Tyrell (Scholastic, 2006) will do the same for Shavonne.”

School Library Journal
 

“…Goodman's delicate prose avoids sentimentality, instead painting a searing picture of a girl who slowly begins to claim the life long stolen from her.”

Publisher’s Weekly
 

“…A gritty, frank tale that doesn't shrink from the harshness of the setting but that also provides a much-needed redemption for both Shavonne and readers.”

Kirkus
 

“Conditions are every bit as gritty here as they are in a Crutcher novel, and readers will definitely learn much about the psychology of troubled kids and those who work with them, but the underlying tone of sympathy, compassion, and hope strikes a very different note as Shavonne reaches beyond her past into a possible future.”

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
 

Winner 2009 Delacorte Prize for a First Young Adult Novel

YALSA selection for Best Fiction for Young Adults

Booklist Top Ten Bank Street College of Education’s Best Books of 2012

South Carolina Young Adult Book Award

Nominee Louisiana Teen Readers’ Choice (LTRC)

Nominee (2014) Missouri Gateway Award Nominees (2013-2014)

Virginia Reader’s Choice Master List (2013-2014)