The First Day of Spring - Large Print by Nancy Tucker (Paperback)

"So that was all it took," I thought. "That was all it took for me to feel like I had all the power in the world. One morning, one moment, one yellow-haired boy. It wasn't so much after all."

Meet Chrissie...

Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. Her playmates are tearful and their mothers are terrified, keeping them locked indoors. But Chrissie rules the roost -- she's the best at wall-walking, she knows how to get free candy, and now she has a feeling of power that she never gets at home, where food is scarce and attention scarcer.

Twenty years later, adult Chrissie is living in hiding under a changed name. A single mother, all she wants is for her daughter to have the childhood she herself was denied. That's why the threatening phone calls are so terrifying. People are looking for them, the past is catching up, and Chrissie fears losing the only thing in this world she cares about, her child.

Nancy Tucker leaves the reader breathless as she inhabits her protagonist with a shocking authenticity that moves the reader from sympathy to humor to horror to heartbreak and back again.

Review Quotes

"Gripping, unsettling debut novel. . .Chrissie's observations are immaculate, loyal to her age and her desperation...By the end of the novel, the voices of Chrissie and Julia reside deep in your skull: visceral and wicked, sad and wonderful, all at the same time."--The New York Times Book Review

"A stunning debut...Suspenseful? You bet. Heart-rending? From beginning to end."--The Washington Post

"Too original to be missed."--PopSugar

"Stylish, cunning thriller...Tucker follows one woman's reckoning with the quarantines of her childhood, seeking love amid dark secrets hiding in the nooks and crannies of all our lives."--OprahDaily, Best Books of May

"A spectacular fiction debut ...The taut, meticulously observed narration, which alternates between Chrissie's youthful and adult perspectives, mines the dangers that childhood trauma causes both its victims and those around them. Fans of Lisa Jewell and smart psychological suspense will eagerly await Tucker's next." --Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

"This sharp-edged and highly discussable book is difficult to put down."--Booklist

"Riveting... a chilling suspense novel about guilt, responsibility, and redemption."--Kirkus

"An exceptional debut which both chilled and moved me from the very first page. I cannot overstate how much I loved this book." - Clare Mackintosh, New York Times bestselling author of I Let You Go

"A darkly dazzling debut, a harrowing story of neglect and cruelty written with a delicate touch and a big heart. As gripping as the tensest of thrillers and as moving and humane as the most intimate of memoirs, I loved this book." - Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

"Tense, addictive and powered by an unforgettable narrative voice, The First Day of Spring gives us not just a window into the confused psychology of a child driven to violence, but a thoughtful consideration of the redemptive power of love and friendship." --Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

"The First Day Of Spring is a gut-wrenching tale about the effects of neglect and loneliness on a child. Eight-year-old Chrissie's voice is so raw and authentic that I could not stop turning the pages, desperate to find out what she would do next. A harrowing, incisive debut." - Stephanie Wrobel, author of Darling Rose Gold

"Nancy Tucker has created one of the most unforgettable characters I've ever read with a remarkable voice that is both piercing and poetic. The contrast between innocence and evil is breathtaking--I found myself aching for Chrissie/Julia as she learns to survive as a daughter and then mother in a world that has failed her. Chilling, thought-provoking, and compulsively readable, The First Day of Spring is a novel that will break your heart on every page and never leave you. I loved it." - Ashley Audrain, author of The Push

About the Author