Words of Stone

Written by: Kevin Henkes

First line: Blaze Werla buried Ortman before breakfast.

Why you should read this book: Blaze lives every day with his life's two large tragedies--the death of his mother when he was five, and the fire that scarred his ankles a year later as he attempted to honor his mother's life--and with a host of small tragedies that keep him fearful and set apart from the rest of the world. Joselle Stark's tragedy is that her selfish mother isn't quite all there, and she copes with her own anxieties with a list of lies too long for her to even keep track of. It's a friendship born of pain, and depending on Blaze's ability to trust and Joselle's to start telling the truth, it might be something even more solid.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You hate it that your dad is dating again.