Every Story Ever Told

Bestselling and award-winning author Ami Polonsky delivers a moving and empowering middle grade novel that speaks to the impact of gun violence on our society.

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In this life-affirming novel of trauma and recovery, a girl searches for a path forward after being forced to confront the reality of gun violence, for fans of Dusti Bowling and Jasmine Warga.

Stevie Jane Cohen-Kaplan's sheltered suburban life is shattered by a mass shooting at a festival in her town. In the aftermath, her brain feels broken. She can't bear to visit her mom, recovering in the hospital under Stevie's dad's watchful eye, or to be pent up in her grandparents' nearby Manhattan apartment.

To escape the apartment and her own thoughts, Stevie starts adventuring around New York City with her best friend, Avi, and a new therapy dog (in training). The trio starts chasing stories-about a neighbor's life after the Holocaust, Stevie's grandfathers who died of AIDS long before she was born, and even about her own mom's activist upbringing. These stories may not bring Stevie all the way back to "normal," but can they help her find a new version of herself?

Written with compassion and care, Every Story Ever Told places readers at the center of their own story and within a larger human tapestry, as one girl tries to make sense of the unthinkable.