Description
“Fire up some Nirvana and Bikini Kill!” 12 Most Anticipated Historical YA Fiction of 2019 –BN Teen Blog
“A sweet and moving read about a young person growing up, coming out, and trying to find the right words to speak their truth. The awesome soundtrack is a bonus.” –Easy Vegan
“Brims with hope.” –Meagan Brothers, author, Weird Girl and What’s His Name
Fifteen-year-old Eleanor Fromme just chopped off all of her hair. How else should she cope after hearing that her bully, James, has taken his own life? When Eleanor’s English teacher suggests students write letters they’ll never send, Eleanor writers to James. With each letter she writes, Eleanor discovers more about herself, even while trying to make sense of his death. And, with the help of a unique cast of characters, Eleanor not only learns what it means to be inside a body that does not quite match what she feels on the inside, but also comes to terms with her own mother’s mental illness.
Told through a series of letters and set against a 1993-era backdrop of grunge rock and riot grrl bands, EVERYTHING GROWS, by Aimee Herman, depicts Eleanor’s extraordinary journey to solve the mystery within her and feel complete. Along the way, she loses and gains friends, rebuilds relationships with her family, and develops a system of support to help figure out the language of her queer identity. Through author Aimee Herman’s exceptional storytelling, EVERYTHING GROWS reveals the value of finding community or creating it when it falls apart, while exploring the importance of forgiveness, acceptance, and learning how to survive on your own terms.
EVERYTHING GROWS: A Novel, by Aimee Herman; Trade Paper; 300 pages; ISBN: 978-1-94110-68-3; $15.00; May 7, 2019
Order EVERYTHING GROWS today!
High Praise for EVERYTHING GROWS by Aimee Herman
“LGBT YA Books to Get Excited for in 2019!” —Autostraddle
“48 of the Best YA Books of May!” —BN Teen Blog
“Eleanor’s candid descriptions of her explorations and feelings about her identity, her body, and her mother’s mental illness ring true, and involve the amount of processing, obsessing, and missteps expected from a teenager trying to figure things out. . . . Sensitive and informative.” —Booklist
“Awkward, affirming, and compassionate, this story about coming into one’s identity will win over the hearts of its young adult audiences.” —Foreword Reviews
“A thought-provoking young adult novel that is insightful and reflective. The characters are well-developed and likable. Aimee Herman deftly handles sensitive subject matter in a forthright and realistic manner.” —Book Reviews & More by Kathy
“Page-turning prose . . . with great beauty.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Everything Grows is a sweet and moving read about a young person growing up, coming out, and trying to find the right words to speak their truth. The awesome soundtrack is a bonus.” —Easy Vegan
“Everything Grows will grow inside you like a revelation, slowly unfolding to a shape that is vulnerable, raw and beautifully alive. . . . Teen embodiment becomes self- conscious, painful, and filled with contradictions. Herman writes a real story, teaching everyone a little about life as lived—genuinely and in discovery. —Max Wolf Valerio, author, The Testosterone Files
“Everything Grows is haunting. It touches the darkness of bullying and suicide, yet brims with hope. Aimee Herman’s tender debut novel is an achingly real exploration of grief, self-discovery, forgiveness, and love.” —Meagan Brothers, author, Weird Girl and What’s His Name
“Everything Grows is a work of healing. It describes coming out as a lifelong process of discovery. Friendship, disfunction, parenting good and bad, and learning to love are unspooled here against a background of exquisite caring. It is the rare read that leaves one a wiser person.” —Steven Taylor, author, False Prophet: Fieldnotes from the Punk Underground; editor, Don’t Hide the Madness: William S. Burroughs in Conversation with Allen Ginsberg
“Set in the decade of grunge rock and ill-advised do-it-yourself body piercings, Aimee Herman’s Everything Grows chronicles a sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny journey to acceptance, both of self and others. Eleanor Fromme is a witty, kind, and conflicted narrator who could teach many people in our nation a lot about empathy.” —Julia Watts, author, Quiver
About the Author
Aimee Herman is a two-time Pushcart Prize-nominated novelist, poet, and performance artist based in Brooklyn, looking to disembowel the architecture of gender and what it means to queer the body. Aimee is the author of two poetry collections, to go without blinking (BlazeVOX books) and meant to wake up feeling (great weather for MEDIA). Her work has been widely published in the U.S. and internationally in literary journals including Lavender Review, EDUCE, Sous Les Pave, and the Lambda Award-winning anthology Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (Nightboat Books). Aimee currently teaches at Bronx Community College. She sings and plays ukelele in the poetryband Hydrogen Junkbox.