The Secret Language of Sisters

November 9, 2015
Sisters Tilly and Roo have been through everything, including their father’s sudden death only a year ago. When an impatient Tilly texts Roo to pick her up at a museum, Roo makes a split-second decision that changes her life forever. Paralyzed and feeling hopeless, 16-year-old Roo, the “perfect, genius, made-for-the-Ivy-League” sister, finds herself stuck in a body that won’t respond, surrounded by loved ones slowly drifting away from her. Alternating between the perspectives of both sisters, bestselling adult author Rice (Home Fires) navigates the delicate territory of sisterhood and accountability in her first book for teens. When 14-year-old Tilly discovers that she is responsible for the text that harmed her sister, this knowledge instigates a series of actions that damage relationships, possibly beyond repair. Rice skillfully examines the way one mistake can shatter the lives of many, though the dialogue centering on disability language and the dangers of texting is heavy-handed in places. With the help of supportive doctors and new friends, both girls find ways to express themselves and prove that sisterhood is an unbreakable bond. Ages 12–up. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

April 25, 2016
Rice’s YA novel begins with talented and beautiful 16-year-old Roo McCabe texting while driving, overturning her car, and winding up in a hospital, bloodied and paralyzed. Seemingly in a coma, she can see and hear everything, but can’t respond in any way. She’s filled with guilt and despair, while her 14-year-old sister and best friend, Tilly, on the other end of the text, blames herself for causing the crash. The sisters narrate the book in alternate chapters, with Pressley giving voice to Roo and Rudd portraying Tilly. Both actors do extremely well with the highly emotional story, which follows the sisters’ reestablishment of communication and includes several rocky impediments, including Tilly’s short-lived crush on Roo’s boyfriend. The actors convey a genuine sense of teenage angst and ebullience and are just as successful in presenting the few adults—the girls’ concerned mother, dedicated doctors, and a kindly and philosophical older woman whose dog was mildly hurt during the accident. Ages 12–up. A Scholastic/Point hardcover.

November 15, 2015
Nature, photography, sisterhood, and severe consequences for texting while driving. Sisters Roo, 16, and Tilly, 14, live right where the Connecticut River meets Long Island Sound. Between Roo's stunning photographs (of river, beaches, marshes, and people) and her off-the-charts academic test scores, she's a shoo-in for Yale--until one fateful day. Roo's late picking up Tilly; Tilly pesters her by text, demanding a response; Roo glances down to reply "5 mins away" and flips her car, ending up paralyzed and in a coma. The sisters alternate first-person narration. Via Roo's chapters, readers know long before her family and doctors that she's actually not in a coma--she has locked-in syndrome and can't move, but she's fully sentient and as sharp as ever. Themes are plentiful and include guilt and confession; recovery (Roo uses a brain-computer interface to communicate and eventually take photos with her one mobile eye); boyfriends and loyalty; and, of course, the warning about texting while driving. Textual insistences that the sisters are best friends with an unbreakable relationship and that Roo's the most "special, luminous girl"--both before and after paralysis--are unduly explicit, and Tilly's voice is sometimes uncharacteristically florid. White characters are white by default, while characters of color are specified, stereotyped, and mainly present to supply support and wisdom. Choppy and an issue book to the core, though certainly effective on the texting-and-driving message. (Fiction. 12-15)

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December 1, 2015

Gr 7-10-This realistic, if a bit heavy-handed, emotional ride takes readers through two sisters' perspectives on a life-altering accident. Tilly and Roo, close friends as well as siblings, find their lives thrown upside down when Roo gets into a devastating car accident. She survives but goes into a coma and eventually suffers from locked-in syndrome-she can hear and see, but she just can't move. Everyone rallies around her, but Tilly, her younger sister, finds herself increasingly on the outside and increasingly attracted to Roo's boyfriend, Newton. Tilly's feelings of guilt multiply when everyone in school discovers that she was texting Roo at the time of the accident. Newton and Roo's relationship, while emotionally deep, remains modest, so middle schoolers would be quite comfortable with the romance here. The alternating chapters, from Tilly's and Roo's perspectives, add to the authenticity of the story; the emotions are genuine and heartfelt. The "don't text and drive" message is a little overdrawn, but readers will be engaged in the emotional and physical recoveries of both sisters. Fans of Gayle Forman's If I Stay (Dutton, 2009) will find another favorite in this. VERDICT A good purchase for libraries with teens craving realistic but not edgy fiction.-Lisa Ehrle, Falcon Creek Middle School, CO

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2016
Grades 8-11 Teen sisters Roo and Tilly became even closer after the sudden death of their scientist father last year. With a widowed mother, the Connecticut family works at adapting to a new normal when tragedy strikes again. Roo, driving to pick up the impatient Tilly, responds to Tilly's text, attempts to avoid hitting a dog, and is suspended by her seat belt as her car flips over. What follows is an exploration into locked-in syndrome ( the coma that is not a coma ) and the profound power of sisterly love. The family's life, rich with a balance of scientific interest and artistic expression, adds depth to this journey into the understanding of disability, as Roo begins to develop communication mechanics. Rice, a best-selling adult author, employs alternating chapters in the sisters' voices with clarity and honesty in her YA debut. Without writing down to her audience, she stays firmly within the developmentally appropriate themes of young love, emotional confusion, and shifting friendships.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)