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The Deepest Breath - Paperback | Diverse Reads

The Deepest Breath

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An accessible and beautifully written middle grade novel-in-verse by award-winning Irish author Meg Grehan about Stevie, a young girl reckoning with anxiety about the many things she has yet to understand—including her feelings about her friend Chloe. Perfect for fans of Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World, Star Crossed, and George.

Eleven-year-old Stevie is an avid reader and she knows a lot of things about a lot of things. But these are the things she'd like to know the most:

  1. The ocean and all the things that live there and why it's so scary
  2. The stars and all the constellations
  3. How phones work
  4. What happened to Princess Anastasia
  5. Knots

Knowing things makes Stevie feel safe, powerful, and in control should anything bad happen. And with the help of her mom, she is finding the tools to manage her anxiety.

But there’s one something Stevie doesn’t know, one thing she wants to understand above everything else, and one thing she isn't quite ready to share with her mom: the fizzy feeling she gets in her chest when she looks at her friend, Chloe. What does it mean and why isn't she ready to talk about it?

In this poetic exploration of identity and anxiety, Stevie must confront her fears to find inner freedom all while discovering it is our connections with others that make us stronger.

ISBN-13: 9780358732976

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Publication Date: 11-22-2022

Pages: 192

Product Dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.60(d)

Age Range: 8 - 12 Years

Meg Grehan is a writer originally from County Louth, but is now hiding away in Donegal in the northwest corner of Ireland, with a very ginger girlfriend, an even more ginger dog, and an undisclosed number of cats (none of whom is ginger). In 2018, she won the Eillís Dillon award from Children’s Books Ireland. She is currently studying film and likes cake and rain; dislikes going outside. Website: megcathwrites.wordpress.com Twitter & Instagram: @megcathwrites

Read an Excerpt

one

I know a lot of things
About a lot of things
But the thing I know the most about
Is me
Stevie

I know that I am eleven years and two months old
And that my hair is brown
And my eyes are green
And I’m allergic to peanuts

I know I have a mum
Whose room is right next to mine
And that sometimes we tap and scratch on the wall at night
Morse code is good for scaring nightmares away
I know that

I know I have a dad
And I know that he lives far away
And I know that’s not my fault
And I know that that’s
OK

I know that I have a funny name
Because the doctors said my mum was going to have a baby boy
But then I popped out
A slimy wriggly baby girl
And she liked the name too much by then
So Stevie it was
And Stevie I am

I know I like the color purple
And things that sparkle
And science and books
And cats and stars and space

I know that I broke my pinkie finger once
And that now
It sticks out funny

I know I’m afraid of zombies and clowns
And not much else
I know I can be brave
But that sometimes it’s hard

I know a lot
About me

There’s only one thing
In the whole of me
That I don’t know

It’s something funny
It’s in my chest
And sometimes my tummy
And always my head
It’s a fizzy feeling
Warm and squishy
And it makes me blush
And it only happens
When I look at my friend
Chloe

And I don’t know what it is
Exactly