Kaleidoscope

Growing up in a small prairie town, J’s first indication that the world might not always be a happy place is when her beloved father falls into alcoholism and abandons the family. As she and her brothers grow up in low-rent housing with a struggling single mother, J’s worldview continues to get darker until she’s feeling completely out of place at school, with her friends, in her dysfunctional relationships with boys, and in the world. But there’s a voice in J’s head, and it’s telling her that she can shape the broken kaleidoscope pieces of her life into beautiful, shifting patterns if she’ll just write her way out of her heartbreak, confusion, and pain. In sensitive, lyrical, and often very witty prose, J chronicles her continuing journey to become the person she wants to be. It’s a book for anyone who has ever felt alone or who has seen the world as a hard, dark place, while still yearning to find the love, forgiveness, and beauty in it.