Not Nothing

"The book we all need at the time we all need it." --Katherine Applegate, Newbery Award-winning author of The One and Only Ivan

In this multigenerational middle grade novel of hope, compassion, and forgiveness from #1 New York Times bestselling author Gayle Forman that is as timely as it is timeles, a boy who has been assigned to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility learns unexpected lessons that change the trajectory of his life.

Alex is twelve, and he did something very, very bad. A judge sentences him to spend his summer volunteering at a retirement home where he's bossed around by an annoying and self-important do-gooder named Maya-Jade. He hasn't seen his mom in a year, his aunt and uncle don't want him, and Shady Glen's geriatric residents seem like zombies to him.

Josey is 107 and ready for his life to be over. He has evaded death many times, having survived ghettos, dragnets, and a concentration camp--all thanks to the heroism of a woman named Olka and his own ability to sew. But now he spends his days in room 206 at Shady Glen, refusing to speak and waiting (and waiting and waiting) to die. Until Alex knocks on Josey's door...and Josey begins to tell Alex his story.

As Alex comes back again and again to hear more, an unlikely bond grows between them. Soon a new possibility opens up for Alex: Can he rise to the occasion of his life, even if it means confronting the worst thing that he's ever done?

Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Aladdin Paperbacks
Published: 08/27/2024
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.8lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781665943277
Audience: Ages 9-12


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/27/2024
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2024
Booklist 07/01/2024 pg. 85
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2024
Horn Book Magazine 09/01/2024 pg. 73

About the Author
Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels, including those in the Just One Day series, Where She Went, and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was adapted into a major motion picture. Her first middle grade novel, Frankie & Bug, was a New York Times Best Children's Book of 2021. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.