The Year They Fell

by David Kreizman

Overview

When a horrible tragedy unites five very different high school seniors, they discover the worst moment of your life can help determine who you really are in the powerful YA novel, The Year They Fell.

Josie, Jack, Archie, Harrison, and Dayana were inseparable as preschoolers. But that was before high school, before parties and football and getting into the right college. Now, as senior year approaches, they're basically strangers to each other.

Until they’re pulled back together when their parents die in a plane crash. These former friends are suddenly on their own. And they’re the only people who can really understand how that feels.

To survive, the group must face the issues that drove them apart, reveal secrets they’ve kept since childhood, and discover who they’re meant to be. And in the face of public scrutiny, they’ll confront mysteries their parents left behind—betrayals that threaten to break the friendships apart again.

A new family is forged in this heartbreaking, funny, and surprising book from award-winning storyteller David Kreizman. It's a deeply felt, complex journey into adulthood, exploring issues of grief, sexual assault, racism, and trauma.

An Imprint Book

“Teen drama abounds in this story about loss and love.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Readers will find the characters relatable as they navigate the challenging time from senior year into adulthood following tragedy.” —School Library Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250179869
Publisher:	Imprint
Publication date:	07/30/2019
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

David Kreizman is the co-creator and head writer of the hit middle-grade audio program The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, winner of a 2016 Peabody Award. As Chief Creative Officer at Gen-Z Media, he oversees the development and production of more than a dozen original scripted audio projects for kids and tweens. Previously he led the writing teams of Guiding Light, All My Children, As the World Turns, and World Wrestling Entertainment, winning two Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild Awards in the process. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids.

David Kreizman is the co-creator and head writer of the hit middle-grade audio program The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, winner of a 2016 Peabody Award. As Chief Creative Officer at Gen-Z Media, he oversees the development and production of more than a dozen original scripted audio projects for kids and tweens.

Previously he led the writing teams of Guiding Light, All My Children, As the World Turns, and World Wrestling Entertainment, winning two Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild Awards in the process. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with his wife and three kids.

Editorial Reviews

Teen drama abounds in this story about loss and love.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Readers will find the characters relatable as they navigate the challenging time from senior year into adulthood following tragedy.” —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

07/01/2019

Gr 9 Up—In preschool, Dayana, Archie, Harrison, and twins Josie and Jack, also known as "The Sunnies," were inseparable. Now they are entering senior year of high school and over the years, school, friends, parties, and sports have turned them into strangers. Their parents have remained close, however, and are on their way to their annual group vacation when they are killed in a plane crash, except for Dayana's parents who weren't able to get on the plane due to passport issues. As the teens are faced with their instant fame and a new reality as orphans, they are also sorting through the past that split them apart and the secrets their parents left behind. Heavy topics are addressed including sexual assault, infidelity, racism, and addiction, as well as the typical high school drama of social status, academic pressure, friendships, and relationships. The narrative switches between characters as their lives intertwine and they try to find out what caused the plane crash. VERDICT Readers will find the characters relatable as they navigate the challenging time from senior year into adulthood following tragedy.—Sarah Polace, Cuyahoga Public Library System, OH

School Library Journal

2019-04-22
A group of high school seniors become orphans after a deadly plane crash.

Dayana Calderón was home, cyberstalking old friends during a pharma-induced high the night of the accident. Popular twins Josie and Jack Clay were throwing "the biggest blowout River Bank High School had ever seen." It was a total fluke that Archie Gallagher, with his ever present sketchbook and dorky glasses, was there along with the socially awkward Harrison Rebkin, who has frequent panic attacks. The former preschool buddies had long since grown apart, but their parents were vacationing together when tragedy struck. Josie is a gorgeous blonde haunted by memories of childhood sexual abuse. "Ginormous shaved-headed" Jack is a white football star with ADHD and a demanding father. Dayana is Costa Rican and has a penchant for purple hair and facial piercings. Archie, a self-proclaimed "black art nerd," has white adoptive parents and a younger brother—his parents' biological child—who is a well-adjusted, gay teen. Harrison, who is white and Jewish, struggles with pressure from his single mother's high expectations. These estranged friends grieve together, discover romance and long-lost friendships—and stumble across dark secrets. It's a lot to unpack, as debut novelist Kreizman front-loads the book with a dense and soapy premise. Some readers will love the melodrama, but others may sense bathos in the contrast between the tremendous tragedy and the more quotidian high school concerns.

Teen drama abounds in this story about loss and love. (Fiction. 13-16)

Kirkus Reviews