Winner of the Newbery Medal 2026

New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medal winner Renée Watson explores friendship, loss and life with grief in this poignant novel told in verse and vignettes.

Sage's thirteenth birthday was supposed to be about movies and treats, staying up late with her best friend and watching the sunrise together.

Instead, it was the day her best friend died.

Without the person she had to hold her secrets and dream with, Sage is lost. In a counselling group with other girls who have lost someone close to them, she learns that not all losses are the same, and healing isn't predictable. There is sadness, loneliness, anxiety, guilt, pain, love. Even as Sage grieves, new, good things enter her life - and she just may find a way to know that she can feel it all.

In accessible, engaging verse and prose, this is a story of a girl's journey to heal, grow, and forgive herself. To read it is to see how many shades there are in grief, and to know that someone understands.