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YA
In this novel written in immediate free verse, self-assured narrator Cerulean chafes at the constraints of high school and dreams of living "off the grid." Sensory-rich scenes of cooking with their loving, understanding family contrast with contentious school scenes, but when an accident has a major impact on their family life, demands from school and friends become too much to contend with. Their perspective is a thought-provoking one: which of the expectations we place on each other, and especially on young people, are reasonable, and which are arbitrary? Shifts in time and point of view leave Cerulean's story open-ended but hopeful.