Gr 9 Up-Devastated by the death of her first love, 15-year-old Jam Gallahue is having difficulty moving on with her life. After nearly a year of being mired in grief, her parents send her to a boarding school in rural Vermont that specializes in "emotionally fragile" teens. Once there, she is surprised to have been one of five students selected by the legendary Mrs. Quenell for a class called Special Topics in English. It seems that the entire semesterMrs. Q's swan song before retirementwill be devoted to the works of Sylvia Plath, and the students are given special red leather journals in which to record their reactions to the assigned readings. Jam is unenthusiastic at first until she realizes that these are no ordinary journals. When she and her classmates, all of whom have endured debilitating losses, begin to writing in their pages, they are transported to their former lives, at least for a while. The teens bond over their experiences in what they call Belzhar, and are able to share their stories and look out for and protect one another. As the semester progresses and the notebooks begin to fill up, they must each confront some inner demons and make some tough choices about their future paths. Wolitzer spins a smart and engrossing tale of trauma, trust, and triumph. She is respectful of the intelligence and sophistication of the teens while acknowledging their vulnerability and lack of life experience. Their voices ring true and the emotional truths are authenticeven for those readers unwilling or unable to embrace the magical realism. Exploring the themes of self-reflection and the recurring notion that "words matter" make this title a perfect choice for book groups and discussions. Luann Toth, School Library Journal

When Jam suffers a terrible trauma and feels isolated by grief, her parents send her to the Wooden Barn, a boarding school for "highly intelligent, emotionally fragile" teens. Once there she is enrolled in a class with only five specially selected students where they exclusively read Sylvia Plath. Sound angsty? Of course it is (check out the Joy Division T-shirt on the cover), but beneath the depressive trappings is a moving story of emotional growth in the face of catastrophic loss. All of Jam's classmates are similarly grief-stricken, and Plath's work, as well as magical journals that transport each student into the blissful moment before his or her loss occurred, help them move on and appreciate their resilience. Wolitzer handles Jam's increasingly complex psychological state with delicate, nonjudgmental nuance e first-person narrative slowly reveals the sticky circumstances of her trauma as well as her growing realization that living in the past is paralyzing. While the conclusion is a touch heavy-handed, older teen readers, especially rabid Plath fans, will relish Wolitzer's deeply respectful treatment of Jam's realistic emotional struggle HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Older teen fans of Wolitzer's New York Times best-selling adult novel The Interestings (2013) will likely flock to her YA debut.

After her boyfriend's death, Jam is shipped to a boarding school for "emotionally fragile, highly intelligent" teens. She's placed in a course for which the only materials are Sylvia Plath's poems, The Bell Jar, and a journal to write in. Much of this powerful book straddles the real and the supernatural, but it's ultimately about the otherworldly things the mind is capable of.

When 10th grader Jam Gallahue meets British exchange student Reeve Maxfield, she fees like she finally understands love, and when she loses him, she can-t get over it. Her grief eventually lands her at the Wooden Barn, a therapeutic boarding school for -emotionally fragile, highly intelligent- teenagers. There, she-s selected for Special Topics in English, a legendary class whose eccentric teacher handpicks her students and gives out journals that, Jam learns, seem to have the ability to take students back to their lives before the disasters that changed them. Making her YA debut, acclaimed author Wolitzer writes crisply and sometimes humorously about sadness, guilt, and anger-Jam-s fellow students each have lines that divide their lives into before and after, and all of them need to move forward. Jam-s class is studying Sylvia Plath, and Wolitzer weaves her life and work into the story with a light hand. Some of this lightness is missing at the end, when Jam reflects how the journals saved her and her classmates, but this is otherwise a strong, original book. Ages 14-up. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, William Morris Endeavor. (Sept.)