Lucky Break

Margaret Wild has written more picture books than young adult novels, but her novel-in-poems, Jinx remains a favorite of mine. The unexpected poetry from each character moves the novel along imaginatively, giving voice to the silent things each character says.
Jen thinks she knows her friends, but once her boyfriend leaves her alone in the world, she wonders: was it me? Should I have know...something? A new boy has a freak accident, and then Jinx is born. She's bad luck. She's bad juju. She's bad news, and she can't care anymore. Her friends have their own worries and pains; all of them are just treading water through the worst year of their lives. Jinx isn't the only one bearing up through heavy weather.

But luck changes. And, if you wait, so does the weather.