Closer to Nowhere

Product Description

#1 New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins’s poignant middle grade novel in verse about coming to terms with indelible truths of family and belonging.

For the most part, Hannah’s life is just how she wants it. She has two supportive parents, she’s popular at school, and she’s been killing it at gymnastics. But when her cousin Cal moves in with her family, everything changes. Cal tells half-truths and tall tales, pranks Hannah constantly, and seems to be the reason her parents are fighting more and more. Nothing is how it used to be. She knows that Cal went through a lot after his mom died and she is trying to be patient, but most days Hannah just wishes Cal never moved in.

For his part, Cal is trying his hardest to fit in, but not everyone is as appreciative of his unique sense of humor and storytelling gifts as he is. Humor and stories might be his defense mechanism, but if Cal doesn’t let his walls down soon, he might push away the very people who are trying their best to love him.

Told in verse from the alternating perspectives of Hannah and Cal, this is a story of two cousins who are more alike than they realize and the family they both want to save.

Review

Praise for Closer to Nowhere:

An Amazon Best Book of the MonthA 2021 NCTE Notable Novel in Verse

★ “
Readers will root for these
realistic characters, and will cheer for the growth they experience.
Highly recommended.” —
School Library Journal,
starred review

“Hopkins’ use of free verse provides a canvas for
sure-handed, brush-stroke development of the backstory and plot and emotional investment and identification with the characters. . .
Compassionate and compelling.” —
Kirkus Reviews

“Hopkins creates 
realistic portrayals of two kids trying to do their best even when it’s not easy.” —
Publishers Weekly

“The queen of gritty YA novels-in-verse enters the realm of middle-grade literature with this story of a family fracturing under myriad pressures yet
refusing to be broken . . . Hopkins paints
a realistic picture of a family undergoing upheaval and learning to better care for one another.” —
Booklist

About the Author

Ellen Hopkins is a former journalist and the award-winning author of twenty nonfiction books for young readers, fourteen bestselling young-adult novels, and four novels for adult readers. With this book, she is honored to enter the realm of middle-grade fiction. Ellen lives with her extended family, one brilliant German shepherd, a retired rescue cat, and two ponds (not pounds) of koi in the eastern shadow of the Northern Nevada Sierra.