Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English
Weblink
http://claireneedell.com/

THE WORD FOR YES

Claire Needell

Claire Needell's first novel is touching and raw as it tackles the important topic of date rape and offers an honest look at how the love and trust between family and friends can hold us together and tear us apart.

After their parents' divorce, Jan, Erika, and Melanie have to get used to the new world order: a father who's moved to another continent and a mother who throws herself into moving on. Jan, off at her first semester of college, has plenty to worry about, including an outspoken roommate who's kind of out there and an increasingly depressed and troubled long-distance boyfriend. Her younger sisters, left at home and dealing with all the pressures of life in high school, aren't exactly close. Erika is serious and smart and feels uncomfortable in crowds, though her beauty tends to attract attention. Melanie is socially savvy and just wants to go out with friendsto concerts, to parties, wherever.

The gap between all three girls widens as each day passes. Then, at a party full of blurred lines and blurred memories, everything changes.

In the aftermath, Jan, Erika, and Melanie will have to work hard to reconnect and help one another heal.

CLAIRE NEEDELL is a middle school teacher at a public school in New York City. She is the author of Nothing Real Volumes 1 through 3, three short story collections published digitally under the HarperTeen Impulse imprint. Claire also writes for the New York Times.

Available products
Book Published by Harper Collins Children's Book

Comments

The Word for Yes is such an important read...Needell does not try to sugarcoat the reality of sexual assault. This is not a book that beats around the bush or hides sexual violence in gratuitous or flowery language. Instead, The Word for Yes is a straightforward look at a family in the aftermath of rape...But it's a must-read for anyone, anywhere who's still fuzzy on what constitutes assault and why affirmative consent is necessary...this book is frank and honest about the important stuff: sex with a drunk or incapacitated person is rape, full stop. And that's a message worth writing (and reading) about.

Each sister must find her way back to the others before she can truly heal. Melanie, Erika, and those orbiting them thrum with all the sharp edges and beauty of real peopleno one is simple or predictable. Their story, much like real life, isn't clear-cut or easy to read, but it's very, very important.An engrossing story proving the hard truth that it isn't always strangers who hurt us the worst of all.

Readers who are interested in timely issues, such as those explored in the novels by Jennifer Brown or Ellen Hopkins, will be intrigued by the important questions raised here.