"Half-orphans" placed in the care of nuns after their mother's death, 14-year-old Frankie and her siblings eagerly await their father's biweekly visits. But then her father leaves Chicago with his new wife and takes along only her brother. Pearl watches as Frankie becomes "both more careful and more reckless," which reminds her of her own wildness before she died of the flu in 1918, World War I's final year. Pearl, even as she hopes to "become an angel," sticks with Frankie through World War II, witnessing tragedies similar to those she experienced barely three decades before.
National Book Award finalist Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All is Laura Ruby's YA follow-up to her 2015 Printz Award-winning Bone Gap. Whether flouting or flaunting their sexuality, these young women try to take control of their futures in a society bent on dictating how women should behave. With literary finesse, Laura Ruby portrays women throwing open as many doors as they can, prepared to face whatever's on the other side. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer