Stars at Oktober Bend, The

Fifteen-year-old Alice suffered an acquired brain injury when she was raped and brutally assaulted at age 12 and as a result has difficulty with speech, experiences seizures, and cannot attend school. She lives with her ill Gram and younger brother Joey and she writes anonymous poems to express herself and distributes them around the community. When sixteen-year-old Manny, previously a child soldier in Africa who also has suffered trauma, shows an interest in her poems, the two develop an improbable relationship. This engaging novel for grades 8-12 deals with challenging topics of disability, poverty, broken families, poverty, trauma, violence, and bullying. Social considerations noted.