The Dear One [Paperback]

The National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming presents a heart-wrenching story about the stigma behind teen pregnancy and the transformative power of understanding.

“A strong, original, and life-affirming book.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A sterling, well-crafted narrative that considers the gamut of emotions and opportunities that teen pregnancy presents.”—KLIATT

Feni is furious when she learns that her mother has agreed to take a fifteen-year-old pregnant girl into their home, and all kinds of thoughts run through her head. How could her mother agree to this? What kind of girl would let herself get into such a situation? And how’s it going to feel to share a room with a stranger? Her worst fears are confirmed when bossy Rebecca arrives, so Feni decides she’ll have nothing to do with her. But it’s hard not to be curious about a girl who’s so different, and like it or not, Feni knows she needs to figure out a way for them to both live under the same roof . . .Jacqueline Woodson is the recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and in 2015, she was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, which was also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, the NAACP Image Award, and a Sibert Honor. She wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a NewlÓ3