A Scar like a River

From bestselling author Lisa Graff, this important coming-of-age story follows a thirteen-year-old with a mysterious scar on her face—and a big secret she feels pressured to keep.

Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award For Fiction

Fallon Little has a secret—and it’s not how she got the enormous scar that divides her face in two.

Thirteen-year-old Fallon has only ever told one person what really happened on the day she got her scar. Why would she? The truth is dark, and Fallon has much brighter things to focus on, like being cast as the lead in the school play, and hanging out with her two best friends, Trent and Kaia. But when Fallon’s uncle Geebie dies, his funeral ignites a wildfire of events that Fallon can’t manage to tamp down. The school play is spiraling out of control, Fallon’s impossible Aunt Lune comes to live with them, and Trent and Kaia might just be so into each other that there isn’t room for Fallon in their friend group any more. And when secrets even worse than the one about Fallon’s scar threaten to come to light, Fallon might not have the strength to keep them buried for much longer.

Through unflinching prose and with a pitch-perfect voice, Lisa Graff explores the power of confronting the past as a way to heal in the present in this propulsive and absorbing tour de force.

* “The story’s pitch-perfect tone balances sad and funny moments impeccably … Darkness and light interplay with perfection.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* “Graff infuses viscerally rendered realities of lingering trauma with moments of lightheartedness to deliver a meticulously calibrated work about a girl who refuses to be defined by her past.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

• Praise for A Scar like a River
  Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award For Fiction
  A Junior Library Guild Selection
  A Kobo CA Best of the Month Selection
  A CBC OMG Selection
  
  * “The short chapters with pithy titles build intrigue and momentum … The story’s pitch-perfect tone balances sad and funny moments impeccably. Fallon demonstrates incredible depth and a rollicking sense of humor…. Darkness and light interplay with perfection.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
  
  * “Graff infuses viscerally rendered realities of lingering trauma with moments of lightheartedness to deliver a meticulously calibrated work about a girl who refuses to be defined by her past.... Funny and compassionate Fallon’s sunny narration accessibly explores heavy topics such as abuse at the hands of a family member, the psychological effects of a lasting injury, and the weight of keeping secrets.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
  
  * "Fallon is an approachable narrator ... her complicated story deals with difficult topics sensitively, neither blowing past them nor delving into trauma for its own sake.…Especially glorious here is the weaving together of laughter and pain, of dealing with difficulties small and large, as is Fallon’s ultimate choice to be honest but also, as much as possible, tilt toward joy.”—BCCB, starred review
  
  * “Fallon’s feisty, funny personality shines through her first-person narration, but she also possesses a frankness that makes readers party to the complex issues she is working through…. There’s no denying that this is a weighty novel, but it respects kids’ abilities to handle reading about tough subjects … Fallon’s story may help them feel empowered and less alone.”—Booklist, starred review
  
  * "Though Fallon’s secrets weigh on her, she is thoughtful, reflective, and speaks her truth…. A powerful, sensitive story of abuse and healing; on par with Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.—School Library Journal, starred review
  
  "Graff strikes a thoughtful balance between the heaviness of Fallon’s hurt and the humor and awkwardness intrinsic to middle school.”
  The Horn Book
• "Wit and heart are such disparate things to combine appropriately in the span of a single novel for kids. What Lisa Graff has managed here isn’t merely extraordinary—it’s monumental. A book that somehow straddles the serious and the silly with enviable aplomb.”
  Betsy Bird, author of Long Road to the Circus and creator of the renowned School Library Journal blog Fuse #8
• “Graff breaks our hearts and heals them, all in one compelling story.”
  Kirby Larson, Newbery Honoree for Hattie Big Sky
• “Quintessential Lisa Graff. Quirky, funny, timely, and deeply moving.”
  Sarah Weeks, award-winning author of Pie and So B. It
• “A gentle invitation for kids to feel and speak and heal through all the complicated emotions surrounding the traumas that leave us scarred.”
  Lindsey Stoddard, acclaimed author of Brave Like That