Criss Cross (2006)

Winner of the 2006 Newbery Medal

Debbie is wishing something would happen. Something good. To her. Soon.

In the meantime, Debbie loses a necklace and finds a necklace (and boy does the necklace have a story to tell), she goes jeans shopping with her mother (an accomplishment in diplomacy), she learns to drive shift in a truck (illegally), she saves a life (directly connected to being able to drive, thus proving something), she takes a bus ride to another town (in order to understand what it feels like to be from elsewhere), she meets a boy (who truly is from elsewhere), but mostly she hangs out with her friends: Patty, Hector, Lenny, and Phil. Their paths cross. Their stories crisscross. And in Lynne Rae Perkins' remarkable book, a girl and her wish grow up. Illustrated throughout with black and white pictures, comics, and photographs by the author.