READERS GUIDE

Questions and Topics for Discussion

INTRODUCTION
Macy’s summer stretches before her, carefully planned and outlined. She will spend her days sitting at the library information desk. She will spend her evenings studying for the SATs. Spare time will be used to help her obsessive mother prepare for the big opening of the townhouse section of her luxury development.

But Macy’s plans don’t anticipate a surprising and chaotic job with Wish Catering, a motley crew of new friends, or . . . Wes. Tattooed, artistic, anything-but-expected Wes. He doesn’t fit Macy’s life at all-so why does she feel so comfortable with him? So . . . happy? What is it about him that makes her let down her guard and finally talk about how much she misses her father, who died before her eyes the year before?

Sarah Dessen delivers a page-turning novel that carries readers on a roller coaster of denial, grief, comfort, and love as we watch a broken but resilient girl pick up the pieces of her life and fit them back together.

Sarah Dessen’s first novel, That Summer, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, was published in 1996. Her other books include Someone Like You and Keeping the Moon, both ALA Quick Picks and School Library Journal Best Books of the Year. Her fourth novel, Dreamland, was published in the fall of 2000. She lives in North Carolina, where she teaches creative writing at UNC-CH, and is currently at work on her fifth novel.