December Stillness

California Young Reader Medal

Sensitive and idealistic fifteen-year-old Kelly McAllister feels at odds with everyone around her. Her best friend has suddenly turned boy crazy. Her talented mother creates greeting card designs instead of real art, and her father never talks to her about anything except working hard and getting ahead.

That's why Kelly becomes so involved in the plight of a homeless Vietnam vet who takes refuge in the library each day. Interviewing him began as a Social Studies project, but it takes on new meaning after her offers of food and friendship backfire into a real disaster. What had the war done to destroy this man? And what had it done to her own father, who had been to the same war … and refuses to speak of it?