DEAR BLUE SKY

A timely, eye-opening novel that explores how war effects families, as seen through a girl's relationship with her big brother, recently deployed to Iraq, and her new Iraqi pen pal.

Twelve-year-old Cassie feels like her life is falling apart. Her parents are fighting, her formerly perfect big sister is skipping class, her best friend Sonia won't speak to her and her little brother, who has Down syndrome, has stopped speaking altogether. Worst of all, Cassie can't turn to the one person who usually holds everything together her beloved big brother, Sef, who's gone to fight in the Iraq war. In her loneliness Cassie turns to Blue Sky, an Iraqi girl she meets through reading her blog. Blue Sky's stories about her war-ravaged life reveal a side of the war that Cassie didn't know existed, and the two girls start a correspondence, sharing their hopes and fears. While Cassie feels helpless because she can't help Blue Sky or keep Sef safe, she's determined to at least keep the family she does have together. As she works to fix things at home, she finds herself growing from a shy quiet girl who hides in the background to a young woman taking charge of her family's future as well as her own.