The Secret Language of Sisters

Rice’s YA novel begins with talented and beautiful 16-year-old Roo McCabe texting while driving, overturning her car, and winding up in a hospital, bloodied and paralyzed. Seemingly in a coma, she can see and hear everything, but can’t respond in any way. She’s filled with guilt and despair, while her 14-year-old sister and best friend, Tilly, on the other end of the text, blames herself for causing the crash. The sisters narrate the book in alternate chapters, with Pressley giving voice to Roo and Rudd portraying Tilly. Both actors do extremely well with the highly emotional story, which follows the sisters’ reestablishment of communication and includes several rocky impediments, including Tilly’s short-lived crush on Roo’s boyfriend. The actors convey a genuine sense of teenage angst and ebullience and are just as successful in presenting the few adults—the girls’ concerned mother, dedicated doctors, and a kindly and philosophical older woman whose dog was mildly hurt during the accident. Ages 12–up. A Scholastic/Point hardcover. (Feb.)