GEM & DIXIE

In GEM & DIXIE, National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr has written her most personal and affecting book yet—an unforgettable story about the hope and heartbreak of family, and how hard many people have to fight for the most basic of needs—food, shelter, and love. The book was named to Publishers Weekly’s Most-Anticipated Children’s and YA Books of Spring 2017 list.

Gem has never known what it is to have money. Or stability. Or an adult she can rely on. But Gem has always had her sister Dixie. Now that they’re both in high school, they’ve grown apart as they've struggled to keep their broken home together: their mother, whose issues and inability to grow up make it hard for her to keep food on the table, and their father, whose intermittent presence is the only thing worse than his frequent absence. When their dad shows up for the first time in years and tries to insert himself back into their lives, Gem finds herself facing an unexpected opportunity. Three days with Dixie—on their own in Seattle and beyond— change her forever as she realizes that to save herself, she may have to sever the one bond that helped make her strong enough to leave. Sara Zarr is the acclaimed author of five novels for young adults, most recently The Lucy Variations, which the New York Times called "an elegant novel." She's a National Book Award finalist and two-time Utah Book Award winner. Her books have been variously named to annual best books lists of the American Library Association, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, the Guardian, the International Reading Association, the New York Public Library, and Los Angeles Public Library. In 2010, she served as a judge for the National Book Award. Her previous book shave been published in Germany (dtv and Aufbau), the UK (Usborne and Hodder), Brazil (Moderna), Macedonia (Sakam), Lithuania (Alma), Netherlands (Kokten Have and Clavis), Korea (Sallim and Darim), Vietnam (BachViet), France (Actes Sud and Bayard), Italy (Fanucci), and Japan (Shogakukan).