All Rivers Flow to the Sea

By Alison McGhee
Chanhassen HS hardcover 168 pages
Genre: YA coming of age, dealing with loss & grief

Long story short: I picked this title for 8th grade book club because I got it as a book club kit from Carver County libraries. As soon as I handed them out, I had only a half-hour wait until an eighth grader came back and showed me page 13 . . . sex. Not terribly graphic, but shocking to some kids. Ugh. I recalled the copies (though five are still out) and gave them Hope Was Here. Then I took this one home to read. It’s actually a very haunting book about a sixteen-year-old girl who’s in a car accident with her older sister. Her sister lies in a bed in a care facility, comatose. Rose struggles with memories of the night of the crash, her mother’s response, and her own numbness. My favorite characters are William T and Tom Miller. I like how William tries so hard to help Rose, scrambling eggs for her and driving her to see Ivy - “Younger and Elder” he calls the girls. Tom is a young man who sees and feels differently than his teenage peers. What a gem.