Goodbye Stranger

ONE

The Cat Ears

Bridge started wearing the cat ears in September, on the third Monday of seventh grade.

The cat ears were black, on a black headband. Not exactly the color of her hair, but close. Checking her reflection in the back of her cereal spoon, she thought they looked surprisingly natural.

On the table in front of her was a wrinkled sheet of homework. It wasn t homework yet, actually. Aside from her name, the paper was blank. She itched to draw a small, round Martian in the upper left-hand corner.

Instead, she put down the spoon, picked up her pen, and wrote:

What is love?

This was her assignment: answer the question What is love?

In full sentences.

She looked at the empty blue lines on the page and tried to imagine them full of words.

Love is __________.

Her mom had once told her that love was a kind of music. One day, you could just . . . hear it.

Was it like that when you met Dad? Bridge had asked. Like hearing music for the first time?

Oh, I heard the music before that, her mom had said. And I danced with a few people before I met Daddy. But when I found him, I knew I had a dance partner for life.

But Bridge couldn t write that. And anyway, her mom was a cellist. Everything was about music to her.

Bridge squeezed her eyes closed until she saw glittery things floating in the dark. Then she started writing, quickly.

Love is when you like someone so much that you can t just call it like, so you have to call it love.

It was only one sentence, but she was out of time.



Bridge had noticed the cat ears earlier that morning, on the shelf above her desk, where they d been sitting since the previous Halloween. They felt strange at first, and made the sides of her head throb a tiny bit when she chewed her cereal, but as she walked toward school, the ears became a comforting presence. When she was small, her father would sometimes rest his hand on her head as they went down the street. It was a little

REBECCA STEAD is the author of When You Reach Me, which was a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Newbery Medal and the Boston Globe Horn Book Award for Fiction, and Liar & Spy, which was also a New York Times bestseller, won the Guardian Prize for Children s Fiction, and was on multiple state master lists and best of the year lists. Her most recent book, Goodbye Stranger, was a Boston Globe Horn Book Honor Book for Fiction and a New York Times bestseller. She is also the author of First Light, which was nominated for many state awards. She lives in New York City with her family. Visit her online at rebeccasteadbooks.com.

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