What She Left — Shannon Stewart

There's something about Mrs. Patterson, the way the old lady is always checking on Jade, asking about her classes and her babysitting job. High school counselors in Oak Grove don't care about kids like Jade â€" the sort of kid who lives in a camper with her drug dealing dad. Those kids don't ask for help with career planning and college applications. Those kids are just an acceptable dropout rate. But there's a reason for Mrs. Patterson's interest in her life. The counselor knew Jade's mother, Ruby. Of course she would -- in small Texas towns like these, strangers know your family history better than you do. Mrs. Patterson says Ruby was very special to her, and she has Ruby's journal. She's kept the yellowing Trapper Keeper all these years, waiting for Jade to be ready. Now Jade is reading words her mother wrote years ago, hoping she might finally understand. It's not like Jade doesn't know what happened to her mother. It's been eight years since Jade woke up alone, her mother hanging from a belt in the closet. She was six. What she doesn't understand is why. That memory is locked in a voiceless place, a dark well of pain suddenly illuminated by the telling of Ruby's story, Jade's story, in Ruby's own words. Reading this journal could taint Jade's dreamlike memories of her lost mother forever, but will it help her understand why her mother just gave up, abandoning her to the Jennings family? Jade is forced to reimagine everything she ever knew about her mother, her family, and herself. She's wondering if she'll ever find an adult she can trust, or a voice for all the silent pain locked in her memory.