Waiting to Disappear

Waiting to Disappear tells the poignant story of 13-year-old Elizabeth Mullens, known as Buddy, whose summer before high school is overshadowed by her mother's severe mental health breakdown. As her mother is admitted to a facility for emotional problems, Buddy grapples with feelings of abandonment, fear, and a fierce determination to bring her mom home. The narrative, set in a small Southern town, explores themes of family love, resilience, and the difficult journey of understanding mental illness. It's a moving coming-of-age story that offers a hopeful and believable portrayal of a family facing a significant crisis, suitable for middle-grade readers ready for emotionally complex topics.

Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Mullens, better known as Buddy, should be having a wonderful summer. Everybody in her small Southern town is getting ready for the Fourth of July, and she's about to start high school. But little by little, Buddy's mom is slipping into her own dark world, and that summer she finally has a breakdown. She has to be taken to Moodus Meadows, a place for people with emotional problems. How could her mother just leave her? Buddy still has her dad and even likes the idea of her glamorous Aunt Sherry staying with them, but she wants her mom back. And one way or another she's going to make it happen. H "Events unfold believably and hopefully in this moving story about family, mental illness, and coming of age. . . ."-Booklist (starred review)