Someone Else's Shoes

Tackling issues of suicide, depression, divorce, and step-parenting with warmth, sensitivity, and even humor, Someone Else's Shoes chronicles a road trip across the Northeast that unites three young people in search of family and acceptance.

Twelve-year-old Izzy, a budding stand-up comic, is already miserable about her father's new marriage and the new baby on the way. Then ten-year-old cousin Oliver and his father, Uncle Henderson, move in with Izzy and her mom because Oliver's mother committed suicide only a few months ago. And to make matters worse, Ben, the rebellious 16-year-old son of Izzy's mother's boyfriend, winds up staying with them, too.

But when Uncle Henderson--who has been struggling with depression after his wife's suicide--disappears, Ben, Izzy, and Oliver set aside their differences and hatch a plan to find him. As the threesome travels in search of Henderson, they find a surrogate family in each other.

Ellen Wittlinger is the author of fifteen YA and middle-grade novels. Her novel Hard Love won both a Printz Honor Award and a Lambda Literary Award. Her books have been on numerous ALA Best Books lists, Bank Street College of Education lists, and state award lists. Wittlinger has taught at Emerson College in Boston and in the Simmons College Writing for Children MFA program. Ellen is also the author of Saturdays with Hitchock and Parrotfish. She currently lives in Haydenville, Massachusetts.