In Hate List, Jennifer Brown delivered a powerful story about grief, friendship, and forgiveness in the aftermath of a school shooting. Now, she explores an evocative new narrative while digging deeper into the themes first touched upon in her debut novel. David Judy knows what it's like to be bullied. Shy and gentle, with a soft voice and "a girl's name for a last name," he is a prime target. Thankfully, there's one girl David feels at ease with—Valerie, the girl who's been dating his neighbor and sometimes-friend, Nick. Valerie is kind to David and pulls him into their circle of outcast friends, where he finally feels like he (sort of) belongs. So when David starts to suspect that Nick and his friend Jeremy are planning a revenge plot against their tormentors, he wrestles with whether or not to tell someone. By the time he finally works up the courage to say something...it's too late. David tries to put what he knows behind him—to forget and move on—but that's hard to do as senior year starts and he watches his old friend, Valerie, struggle in a deep, dark place of guilt and confusion. It's time to speak up. David may not be able to end bullying, but by standing up, he might just make a difference. And that's what matters.
Author
Two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck Global Humor Award (2005 & 2006), Jennifer's weekly humor column appeared in The Kansas City Star for over four years, until she gave it up to be a full-time young adult novelist. Jennifer's debut novel, HATE LIST (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009) received three starred reviews and was selected as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a VOYA "Perfect Ten," and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year. HATE LIST also won the Michigan Library Association's Thumbs Up! Award, the Louisiana Teen Readers Choice award, the 2012 Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award, was an honorable mention for the 2011 Arkansas Teen Book Award, is a YALSA 2012 Popular Paperback, received spots on the Texas Library Association's Taysha's high school reading list as well as the Missouri Library Association's Missouri Gateway Awards list, and has been chosen to represent the state of Missouri in the 2012 National Book Festival in Washington, DC. Jennifer's second novel, BITTER END, (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2011) received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and VOYA and is listed on the YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults list and is a 2012 Taysha's high school reading list pick as well. Jennifer writes and lives in the Kansas City, Missouri area, with her husband and three children.
