“An artful exercise in melancholy…Every reader will love openhearted Will.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Haunting, introspective.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Emotionally raw…[A] piercing narrative.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“McGhee artfully illustrates the tangled web wherein grief intertwines with the mundane.” —BCCB
After his dad dies of suicide, Will tries to overcome his own misery by secretly helping the people around him in this exquisitely crafted story made up of one hundred chapters of one hundred words each, by award-winning and bestselling author Alison McGhee.
Sixteen-year-old Will spends most of his days the same way: Working at the Dollar Only store, trying to replicate his late father’s famous cornbread recipe, and walking the streets of Los Angeles. Will started walking after his father committed suicide, and three years later he hasn’t stopped. But there are some places Will can’t walk by: The blessings store with the chest of 100 Chinese blessings in the back, the bridge on Fourth Street where his father died, and his childhood friend Playa’s house.
When Will learns Playa was raped at a party—a party he was at, where he saw Playa, and where he believes he could have stopped the worst from happening if he hadn’t left early—it spurs Will to stop being complacent in his own sadness and do some good in the world. He begins to leave small gifts for everyone in his life, from Superman the homeless guy he passes on his way to work, to the Little Butterfly Dude he walks by on the way home, to Playa herself. And it is through those acts of kindness that Will is finally able to push past his own trauma and truly begin to live his life again. Oh, and discover the truth about that cornbread.
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“One hundred chapters of 100 words each. The central structure of Alison McGhee’s book may be lost on listeners, but it is compensated for by Michael Crouch’s honest, gentle rendering of sixteen-year-old Will…Crouch perfectly connects to Will’s emotional turmoil at the loss of his father, suggesting Will’s mood through an understated pitch and an unhurried cadence that keep this sorrowful story from slipping into sentimentality. It’s a difficult job that Crouch manages with superb skill. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
“Will is a classic wounded teenager who is nevertheless his own person. Everybody loved his father—and every reader will love openhearted Will.”
— Booklist (starred review)“Haunting, introspective.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Emotionally raw…[A] piercing narrative.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)“McGhee artfully illustrates the tangled web wherein grief intertwines with the mundane.”
— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s BooksBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Alison McGhee is an acclaimed author. She writes for all ages and in all forms, from poetry and stories to novels, picture books, and essays, and her books are popular with critics and readers alike. Her novel Shadow Baby was a Today Show Book Club pick, and her picture book Someday was featured on NPR.
Michael Crouch is an actor based in New York City. His audiobook narration has won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine, and Best of the Year accolades from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. He can also be heard on national commercials, cartoons, video games, and the animé series Pokémon XY and Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V.