Lost for Words

by Alice Kuipers

Overview

My New Year's resolution: I'm moving on from everything that's happened. I'm not going to talk about it, think about it, let the memory pounce upon me like a waiting tiger, nothing.

All Sophie wants to do is forget. But it's not easy now that everything's changed. The house feels too big, school drags on for too long, lights are too bright, the room spins, and her hands get sweaty for no reason. And she can't remember why she was ever best friends with Abigail, who is obsessed with parties and boys. Only the new girl, Rosa-Leigh, with her prose poems and utter confidence, might understand. But talking to her seems impossible.

Lost in memories of the life she once had, Sophie retreats into herself. But there's only so long she can keep everything bottled up inside before she explodes. Maybe by confronting the tragedy of her past she'll figure out how to fix her future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062001498
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/15/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	280 KB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

ALICE KUIPERS is the award-winning, bestselling author of four previous novels, Life on the Refrigerator Door, The Worst Thing She Ever Did, 40 Things I Want to Tell You and The Death of Us, and two picture books. Her work has been published in twenty-nine countries. She lives in Saskatoon.

Web: alicekuipers.com

Facebook: Alice Kuipers

Twitter: @AliceKuipers

Editorial Reviews

After a traumatic summer during which her sister, Emily, was killed, shell-shocked 16-year-old Sophie returns to her London high school feeling increasingly removed from her best friend Abigail (who is hanging out with a more popular crowd and becoming alarmingly thin) and her mother (who has been dealing with Emily's death by isolating herself and collecting lost objects). Reflective Sophie reluctantly takes her therapist's advice and begins to write diary entries and poems, which make up the novel. She bonds with a new friend, Rosa-Leigh, and tries to function normally, but her anger, fear, and sadness resurface throughout. Adult author Kuipers's (Life on the Refrigerator Door) first YA novel delicately details the complexities of the grief process. Through Sophie's perceptive narration, readers get well-developed images of the many characters ("The older one had this twinkle in his expression like he knew stuff," is Sophie's impression of one of Rosa-Leigh's brothers), yet Sophie is a relative cipher. The circumstances of Emily's death--left a mystery for most of the book--have taken a toll on her that goes well beyond the loss of her sister. Ages 12–up. (May)

Publishers Weekly

This novel is gorgeous, heart-ripping, important.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)

“Kuipers artfully manages to make Sophie’s tale achingly real and yet still hopeful. Her distinct, first–person voice and quirky details shine through the dark tragedy, giving familiar themes a fresh take.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Touching and realistic.” — School Library Journal

“The emotional portraits of Sophie and those around her ring true.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Kuipers’s...delicately details the complexities of the grief process.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

The emotional portraits of Sophie and those around her ring true.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

This novel is gorgeous, heart-ripping, important.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (starred review)

The emotional portraits of Sophie and those around her ring true.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The emotional portraits of Sophie and those around her ring true.

The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

This novel is gorgeous, heart-ripping, important.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) (Starred Review)

Gr 8 Up—Sophie, 16, begins her second semester of high school feeling isolated and out of sync with her fellow British classmates. After witnessing the death of her older sister in a train bombing, she finds school pointless, her mother useless, and her friends a waste of time. Sophie begins to skip classes and leave early from parties only to become absorbed in memories of Emily. She is helped by a new student from Canada, who challenges her to write poetry, read books, and attend poetry slams. Despite anxiety attacks and overwhelming feelings of guilt, Sophie eventually saves herself through her journal entries and her words. The entire book is a series of journal entries as the protagonist describes life without her sister. Kuipers allows readers to gauge Sophie's feelings through her innermost thoughts and reactions to daily events. The teen's vocabulary and diction make the novel an easy read, great for reluctant or struggling readers. Touching and realistic.—Mary-Brook J. Todd, The Ensworth School, Nashville, TN

School Library Journal

Unable to deal with the tragedy that killed her sister, Emily, Sophie retreats into herself, refusing to talk about her grief. Her mother, drowning in her own pain, is unable to help Sophie heal. Sophie tries to navigate the confusing drama of high school while suffering through flashbacks, irrational emotional outbursts and panic attacks. Her therapist encourages her to write about her memories in a journal, which forms the narrative, but it is her new friend, Rosa-Leigh, who introduces her to the world of poetry. Through her poems and her frank discussions with her new friend, Sophie is able to start healing. British-born Kuipers takes the 2005 bombing in the London Tube as her springboard and artfully manages to make Sophie's tale achingly real and yet still hopeful. Her distinct, first-person voice and quirky details shine through the dark tragedy, giving familiar themes a fresh take. More than just a story of one girl, this is a look at a family trying to rebuild after their lives have been literally blown apart. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews