Everywhere Blue - by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz (Paperback)

About the Book

Twelve-year-old Maddie, who suffers from anxiety, loves music, math, and everything in its place, but when her older brother Strum disappears from his college campus, her family starts slipping away from her.

Book Synopsis

A brother's disappearance turns one family upside down, revealing painful secrets that threaten the life they've always known.

When twelve-year-old Maddie's older brother vanishes from his college campus, her carefully ordered world falls apart. Nothing will fill the void of her beloved oldest sibling, Strum. Meanwhile Maddie's older sister reacts by staying out late, and her parents are always distracted by the search for Strum. Drowning in grief and confusion, the family's musical household falls silent.

Though Maddie is the youngest, she knows Strum better than anyone. He used to confide in her, sharing his fears about the climate crisis and their planet's future. So, Maddie starts looking for clues: Was Strum unhappy? Were the arguments with their dad getting worse? Or could his disappearance have something to do with those endangered butterflies he loved . . .

Scared and on her own, Maddie picks up the pieces of her family's fractured lives. Maybe her parents aren't who she thought they were. Maybe her nervous thoughts and compulsive counting mean she needs help. And maybe finding Strum won't solve everything--but she knows he's out there, and she has to try.

This powerful debut novel in verse addresses the climate crisis, intergenerational discourse, and mental illness in an accessible, hopeful way. With a gorgeous narrative voice, Everywhere Blue is perfect for fans of Eventown and OCDaniel.

An NCTE Notable Verse Novel
A Mighty Girl Best Book of the Year
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year
Cybils Award Poetry Winner!

Review Quotes

"An insightful exploration of a girl's inner tickings." --Kirkus Reviews

"Maddie's quiet courage shimmers like the flash of a butterfly's wing."--Caroline Starr Rose, author of May B.

"I love everything about this novel. Being inside Madrigal's thoughts is like living in a metronome that slowly evolves into a layered symphony. Fritz's verse style gently alters your brainwaves until you are in perfect rhythm with the universe."--Nicole Valentine, author of A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity

"A lyrical novel that makes you feel the chill in your bones but also gives you hope and beauty and lightness, like watching Maddie's beloved butterflies open and soar."--Kathryn Erskine, National Book Award-winning author of Mockingbird

"Libraries need more titles featuring young people who care about climate change and live with undiagnosed mental illness, and this fresh novel in verse fits the bill."--School Library Journal

"This well-written story of a family under duress blends music and ecology and may fit a certain niche in some collections."--School Library Connection

About the Author

Joanne Rossmassler Fritz is a poet and a member of SCBWI. She developed her love of children's books by working at a school library, the independent bookstore Chester County Book and Music Company, and at a publishing company. She and her husband live outside West Chester, Pennsylvania. This is her debut novel.