Palms to the Ground

This is the kind of book you read on a plane and wish you'd had at thirteen. It's funny and sad and cool. It's about being a teenager with whacked out parents that really love you. It's about being over-protected and that's the name of parenting in the 21st century. Most of the joys/traumas of being a kid that I experienced just aren't available to my kids: Camping without adults, disappearing for hours, riding one's bike into forever, breaking limbs, exploring abandoned buildings. We live in a safe protected world. Calman, our main man, gets to go on a summer trip to meet his pen pal who turns out to be a girl. They get to live life outside his safe world and he gets to grow up, and it isn't all fun, but it's all good in the end. It's a life of gritty surprises. Amy Stolls is a good writer and you feel you're in safe hands with this book. You know your teen will read it and roll their eyes at you, and that's good too. It's a book either gender would enjoy equally, a rarity for YA. Give it to your kid. He or she will thank you for it. Kate Gale

An only child, Calman has been seeing a therapist since he was seven, and is now about to travel from his Boston home to Washington to meet his pen pal. His encounters with an unusual cast of very different characters and potential friends will bring him more awareness of his own life and personality than therapy could ever afford him.

The characters and descriptions took this 64-year-old reader on a ride through 50 years of time. Ms. Stolls brought me from delight to anger to sympathy and around again. She's a fine wordsmith with a "roll-it-up-a-notch" sense of humor. Lenore Paddock, Montville, NJ

Palms To The Ground is the sort of gem of a novel that will appeal to readers of all ages. I'm 34 and I loved it so much that I've bought copies for the young people in my life and also for my best friend. Amy Stolls writes with clarity, empathy, and humor. Palms to The Ground makes me wish that she was writing when I was a kid!

A funny and heart-warming tale of two penpals caught up in the space between childhood and adolescence. The nebbish Calman and the irrepressible Rizzy come to pitch-perfect life, not to be forgotten in their bittersweet complexities. Perfect for tomboys and nerds and everyone in between who loves a good story -- no doubt the best novel ever set in Walla Walla, Washington. And for older readers, it will take you back to the time of first heartbreak and the sudden realization that you are not too far away from adulthood.