The New York Times Book Review - Meg Wolitzer
…[a] masterly new novel…The characters in Goodbye Stranger search for ways to feel good, feel powerful and still feel like themselves even during new experiences like romantic attraction…Through this thicket of rapid—practically cellular—growth and change, Stead has managed to clear distinctly articulated paths for her characters. This novel not only sensitively explores togetherness, aloneness, betrayal and love, it also acknowledges something crucial to the business of growing up…
Publishers Weekly - Audio
10/26/2015
Three tween girls navigate the perils of junior high, boys, and texting, in this friendship novel from Newbery Medal–winning Stead. Veteran audiobook narrator Farr reads the bulk of the novel from the perspective of Bridge, one of the three BFFs. It’s not clear why she has been cast here playing 23-year-olds, since her voice is clearly more suited to play their mothers. Even though she captures the sensitivity and humor of junior high, she’s fundamentally misplaced. The audio production also weaves in strong supporting performances by voice actor Heyborne, who reads the letters written by Sherm, Bridge’s friend turned love interest, and voice actor Simhan, who comes in and out of the story as a slightly older character whose identity is not revealed until the final scenes. Ages 10–up. A Random/Lamb hardcover. (Aug.)
Publishers Weekly
★ 05/11/2015
Bridget Barsamian accidentally skated into traffic at age eight, and this brush with death has made her an uncommonly introspective seventh-grader. A tight triumvirate, Bridge and her friends Tab and Em have sworn upon a Twinkie never to fight, but now Em’s curves are attracting boy interest (and a request for a risqué photo), while Tab’s attentions are turning toward feminism and social justice. Meanwhile, Bridge has a new friend, Sherm; his share of the story unspools in letters to his estranged grandfather, who left Sherm’s beloved Nonna after 50 years of marriage. Then there is an unnamed high school–age character, whose second-person chapters take place on Valentine’s Day, months in the future. Keeping readers off-balance is a Stead hallmark, but it doesn’t work quite as successfully here as it did in When You Reach Me and Liar and Spy, perhaps because the mystery narrator and the people she interacts with aren’t as fleshed out as everyone else. That said, this memorable story about female friendships, silly bets, different kinds of love, and bad decisions is authentic in detail and emotion—another Stead hallmark. Ages 10–up. Agent: Faye Bender, Faye Bender Literary Agency. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
A New York Times Bestseller
An ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book
An ALA-YALSA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, NPR, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, The Horn Book Magazine, Booklist
Named to Multiple State Award Lists
"Winsome, bighearted, and altogether rewarding." —Booklist, Starred review
“…Stead’s writing [is]… filled with humor, delightful coincidences… An immensely satisfying addition for Stead’s many fans.” —School Library Journal, Starred review
"... [Stead] captures the stomach-churning moments of a misstep or an unplanned betrayal and reworks these events with grace, humor, and polish into possibilities for kindness and redemption. Superb.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred review
“This memorable story about female friendships, silly bets, different kinds of love, and bad decisions is authentic in detail and emotion—another Stead hallmark.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred review
“The handing-down of advice and wisdom from older girls and women is a welcome theme throughout the book and far too rare in female coming-of-age stories; it’s just one of many reasons this astonishingly profound novel is not your average middle-school friendship tale.” —The Horn Book, Starred review
“The author as usual deftly interweaves her plot strands into an organic whole, and between the multifocal plot and the exploration on growth and self-recognition…” —Bulletin, Starred review
“Stead can brilliantly summon what it feels like to be a young adolescent ... [Goodbye Stranger] is full of fun and generosity, and ... it is beautifully balanced.” —Wall Street Journal
“This novel not only sensitively explores togetherness, aloneness, betrayal and love, it also acknowledges something crucial to the business of growing up: how anyone’s personal ‘we of me’ might look different a little while from now, and later still, different again.” —Meg Wolitzer for New York Times Book Review
“Absolutely relatable and full of heart.” —Bustle.com
“Beautifully written and perfectly paced ... Stead doesn’t talk down to her intended audience (ages 10 and up) or even to adult readers long past seventh grade who may well be surprised by the flood of real-life memories her fictional world dislodges ... Goodbye Stranger will remind you of who you are.” —Houston Chronicle
“A moving blend of present-day and historic, romantic love and familial love, deep questions and just-for-fun pursuits.” —BookPage
“[Stead] can see into the souls of young people as they begin to grow conscious of how others view them from the outside and how they feel on the inside, and she has the skill to illuminate how they grapple with these gaps and overlaps in perception.” —Shelf-Awareness
“[A]s authentic as it gets ... This is a landmark in literature on the friendships of young women ... Goodbye Stranger packs a wallop of emotion that’s a true pleasure to be leveled by.” —The Brooklyn Rail
“Stead manages to infuse her book with a timeless quality, particularly in the way she so accurately taps into universal feelings of trying to nail down exactly who one is supposed to be. Stead’s humble story is one that is deeply felt, and perhaps one of the strongest children’s novels of 2015 so far.” —National Post
“This marvelous, life-affirming novel, told from three perspectives, explores the unsettling, pivotal changes of adolescence as three best friends start seventh grade.” —Buffalo News
“A school story of substance and literary finesse.”—The Toronto Star
School Library Journal
★ 05/01/2015
Gr 6–9—Ah, seventh grade! A year when your friends transform inexplicably, your own body and emotions perplex you, and the world seems fraught with questions, and the most confusing ones of all concern the nature of love. Stead focuses on Bridge Barsamian, her best girlfriends, and her newest friend Sherm—a boy who is definitely not her boyfriend (probably). They're navigating the shoals of adolescence on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Emily has suddenly developed a figure that attracts a lot of attention, Tabitha is an increasingly committed human rights activist, and Bridge has taken to wearing a headband with black cat's ears for reasons that are unclear even to her. The seventh graders aren't the only characters working out relationships. There are married parents and divorced parents and then there's Sherm's grandfather who has suddenly left his wife of 50 years and moved to New Jersey. There's also a mysterious character whose Valentine's Day is doled out in second-person snippets interspersed within the rest of the story. Love is serious, but Stead's writing isn't ponderous. It's filled with humor, delightful coincidences, and the sorts of things (salacious cell phone photos, lunchroom politics, talent show auditions) that escalate in ways that can seem life-shattering to a 13-year-old. The author keeps all her balls in the air until she catches them safely with ineffable grace. VERDICT An immensely satisfying addition for Stead's many fans.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY
AUGUST 2015 - AudioFile
This story, told from multiple points of view, translates beautifully to audio. Kimberly Farr provides the main narration from the point of view of middle schooler Bridge, while Meera Simhan performs chapters in the second person that follow an unnamed high schooler who is skipping school on Valentine’s Day, and Kirby Heyborne reads letters that Bridge’s new friend, Sherm, writes to his estranged grandfather. Farr captures Bridge’s intelligence as well as her naïveté as she watches her friends take risks she doesn’t quite understand and ponders her own changing feelings for Sherm. Simhan adds sharpness and worldliness to the Valentine’s Day chapters while Heyborne focuses on Sherm’s steadiness along with his vulnerability and hurt. The whole is an absorbing exploration of friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness that sounds exactly like middle school. A.F. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2015-05-06
Three interwoven narrative strands explore the complicated possibilities of friendship in early adolescence. Bridge (formerly Bridget) finds increasing confidence as she navigates her seventh-grade year, while, in unsent letters to his absent grandfather, classmate Sherm expresses grief and anger over changes in his family. And an unnamed, slightly older child in a second-person narrative spends a single miserable day avoiding school for reasons that are revealed at the turning point. Stead explores communication and how messages—digital or verbal, intentional and inadvertent, delivered or kept private—suffuse the awkward, tentative world of young teens leaping (or sometimes falling) from the nest in search of their new selves. From Bridge's cat-ears, worn daily from September through mid-February, to Sherm's stolid refusal to respond to his grandfather's texts, the protagonists try on their new and changing lives with a mixture of caution and recklessness. Stead adroitly conveys the way things get complicated so quickly and so completely for even fairly ordinary children at the edge of growing up with her cleareyed look at bullies and their appeal (one girl is "truly genius at being awful"), as well as her look at impulsiveness and the lure of easy sharing via text. She captures the stomach-churning moments of a misstep or an unplanned betrayal and reworks these events with grace, humor, and polish into possibilities for kindness and redemption. Superb. (Fiction. 11-14)
