Fragile Bones: Harrison and Anna

by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Overview

On the 2016 Alberta Literary Awards shortlist - for Children's Literature

2016 Red Maple Fiction Award nominee

2016 Diamond Willow Nominee

Meet Harrison and Anna.

One is a fifteen-year-old boy with an uncanny ability to recite every bone in the skeletal system whenever he gets anxious - and that happens a lot. The meaning of "appropriate behaviour" mystifies him: he doesn't understand most people and they certainly don't understand him.

The other is a graduating senior with the world at her feet. Joining the Best Buddies club at her school and pairing up with a boy with Aspergers/autism is the perfect addition to her med school applications. Plus, the president of the club is a rather attractive, if mysterious, added bonus.

Told in the alternating voices of Harrison and Anna, Fragile Bones is the story of two teens whose lives intertwine in unexpected ways.

Each One-to-One novel tells the story of a different pair of teens participating in the Best Buddies program at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School. Follow the lives of this group of friends who come together with different expectations and problems, seeing the world from their own unique perspectives and facing it head on together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780993935107
Publisher:	Clockwise Press
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Series:	One-2-One , #1
Pages:	220
Sales rank:	308,963
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	11 - 15 Years

About the Author

Lorna Schultz Nicholson is the author of many novels for children and teens, including the Podium Sports Academy series, as well as the popular Puckster picture book series. A former radio host and health and lifestyle reporter, she is now a full-time author and presenter.

Editorial Reviews

"Captivating. . . I really enjoyed this piece of realistic fiction. It's a quick read with a happy ending yet a lot of depth. I will certainly be recommending it to my fellow high school librarians."
— Teachers' Resource Network

"Nicholson creates two convincing characters with a multi-dimensional story, making what could have been a potentially didactic novel a very enjoyable read. . . What makes this book so good is that both Harrison and Anna must step outside their external and self-imposed limitations demonstration that, if given the chance, people can — and do — experience great things."
— Canadian Children's Book News

From the Publisher

Teenagers Harrison and Anna join the Best Buddies club at Winston Churchill Secondary School, a club designed to pair a graduating senior with an impaired teen. Harrison, a fifteen-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome/autism, is pushed into joining, while Anna, a high achiever, thinks this will be a perfect addition to her college applications. Both are surprised when they develop a tentative but true friendship. Anna learns how Harrison, brilliant at remembering all the bones of the body and phobic about germs, requires structure and familiarity in order to function, while Harrison discovers that girls can be supportive and pleasant. Their friendship has troubles along the way, but each reaches a new level of maturity with the help of the other. Although Best Buddies is a real program, the book is fictional; subsequent novels in the series will explore other relationships. As the book is written in alternating chapters, the reader experiences the same event from two points of view. Anna’s narrative lets the reader see as a normal person, but Harrison’s places the reader inside the brain of someone who struggles for control and lives close to the edge of meltdown. His frustration as he seeks to understand his family—and the loneliness and fear caused by his inability to relate to his peers—is palpable. Short, easy reading, Fragile Bones is not a complete picture of either character nor should it be. Young readers will get the point. (One-2-One, Book 1) Reviewer: Laura Woodruff; Ages 11 to 18.

VOYA, August 2015 (Vol. 38, No. 3) - Laura Woodruff