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"Benji never really wanted to be my boyfriend, just my best friend, but I loved him from the first time I saw him and I didn't know how to stop." And now that Benji is dead, the victim of a senseless car accident, 18-year-old Bridget still can't stop loving him. She defers her first year of college, takes a dull waitressing job at an all-night diner, and sinks into her own special brand ... More

"Benji never really wanted to be my boyfriend, just my best friend, but I loved him from the first time I saw him and I didn't know how to stop." And now that Benji is dead, the victim of a senseless car accident, 18-year-old Bridget still can't stop loving him. She defers her first year of college, takes a dull waitressing job at an all-night diner, and sinks into her own special brand of misery, nicknamed The Hole (where "time does not exist" and "bathing is usually optional"). Her therapist, friends, and family all try to console her, but Bridget's depression is unrelenting. Then Jasper comes into her life. Jasper, who brings her sunflowers and notices important things like cool shoes, just might be Bridget's ticket out of The Hole. Yet, something still doesn't feel right. Slowly, Bridget realizes that the one person she never really tried to understand was Bridget: "I've molded myself ... into the kind of person Benji might be persuaded to love because I was too scared to figure out who I really was." It's time for Bridget to become friends with herself, by herself--without Jasper, and maybe, finally, without Benji.

[Lara M. Zeises' Bringing Up the Bones was an honor book for] the Delacorte Press Prize for a First Young Adult Novel for this lovingly crafted ode to the restorative power of the grieving process. Teen devotees of other literary four-hankie reads like A Time for Dancing by Davida Wills Hurwin, and Girlhearts by Norma Fox Mazer will also enjoy crying over Bridget's loss in Bringing Up the Bones. (Ages 14 and older) --Jennifer Hubert

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