Criss Cross: A Newbery Award Winner

Winner of the Newbery Medal • New York Times Bestseller • An ALA Notable Book • An ALA Best Book for Young Adults • School Library Journal Best Book • Booklist Editors’ Choice • Kirkus Reviews Editors’ Choice • Horn Book Fanfare Book • New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age

In this acclaimed, award-winning, and timeless national bestseller, Newbery Medalist Lynne Rae Perkins explores the crisscrossing lives of four teenagers on the verge of adulthood. The unique format incorporates short vignettes, haiku, Q&As, and illustrations by the author. Written with love and humor, Criss Cross is an unforgettable story of friendship, family, and growing up.

“It’s hard to write a book this good. Lynne Rae Perkins makes it seem easy.”—Kevin Henkes, New York Times–bestselling author of the Newbery Honor Books Olive’s Ocean and The Year of Billy Miller

“Brilliantly captures the adolescent-level Zen that thoughtful kids bring to their assessment of the world.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

“Best of all are the understated moments, often private and piercing in their authenticity, that capture intelligent, likable teens searching for signs of who they are, and who they’ll become.”—ALA Booklist (starred review)

“Written with humor and modest bits of philosophy, the writing sparkles with inventive, often dazzling metaphors.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Like a lazy summer day, the novel induces that exhilarating feeling that one has all the time in the world.”—The Horn Book (starred review)

“A gentle story about a group of childhood friends facing the crossroads of life and how they wish to live it. Young teens will certainly relate.”—School Library Journal (starred review)

For Debbie, Hector, and their friends, it’s a summer where everything and nothing happens all at once.

• Childhood Friends: Debbie, Hector, Lenny, and Phil have known each other forever. But this is the summer that everything starts to feel different.
• First Crush: From a wish made over a magazine to a surprise connection, these teens navigate the awkward, funny, and heartfelt moments of young love.
• Finding Your Voice: When Hector discovers a love for the guitar, it sets him on a new path of self-discovery, one song—and one awkward lesson—at a time.
• Newbery Medal Winner: Praised for its unique format of vignettes, haikus, and illustrations, this timeless novel captures the quiet, authentic moments of growing up.

Debbie is wishing something would happen. Something good. To her. Soon. In the meantime, Debbie loses a necklace and finds a necklace (and boy does the necklace have a story to tell), she goes jeans shopping with her mother (an accomplishment in diplomacy), she learns to drive shift in a truck (illegally), she saves a life (directly connected to being able to drive, thus proving something), she takes a bus ride to another town (in order to understand what it feels like to be from "elsewhere"), she meets a boy (who truly is from "elsewhere"), but mostly she hangs out with her friends: Patty, Hector, Lenny, and Phil. Their paths cross. Their stories crisscross. And in Lynne Rae Perkins's remarkable book, a girl and her wish grow up. Illustrated throughout with black–and–white pictures, comics, and photographs by the author.

Ages 10+