Girls Just Reading: Armchair BEA: Giveaway

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Armchair BEA: Giveaway - Say What You Will

There is a lot of buzz going around about Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern. While I must say that its subject matter is a little too serious for my tastes, I know this is a book that will make a difference for a lot of people with it's diverse characters and realistic subject matter.

From Harper Teen:

SAY WHAT YOU WILL by Cammie McGovern follows Amy – a girl born with cerebral palsy who cannot talk, can walk only with a walker, and has difficulty controlling her facial expressions – who has decided her senior year is the time to make friends. So she hires students to be her helpers at school, including Matthew, a boy struggling with OCD. As they both help each other through their individual difficulties, a friendship begins to blossom into a romance story unlike any other.

SAY WHAT YOU WILL already has people buzzing – in the May 16 issue ofEntertainment Weekly, they named the book one of the “5 YA Novels to Watch Out For.” In a starred review, Publishers Weekly raved: “readers will be surprised, moved, amused, worried, hopeful, and grateful to have spent time with them [Amy and Matthew],” and Kirkus called it “a deeply engaging and rewarding story.” Booklist also gave a starred review saying: “Exhilarating and heartrending, McGovern’s YA debut has a similar odd-couple camaraderie as Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park (2013) and the raw exploration of disability in R. J. Palacio’s Wonder (2012). With a smart, proud, and capable protagonist eager to take her life by the reins, this novel is stunning.”
To learn more about Cammie’s Whole Children organization, the girl with cerebral palsy that served as the inspiration for the book, as well as an excerpt, be sure to head over to USA Today’s “Happy Ever After.”