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About The Book

Some friends fade away....Others disappear.

Imagine you and your best friend head out West on a cross-country bike trek.

Imagine that the two of you get into a fight -- and stop riding together.

Imagine you reach Seattle, go back home, start college.

Imagine you think your former best friend does too.

Imagine he doesn't.

Imagine your world shifting....

Shift is a tour de force -- a literary debut that'll knock the wind out of you as it explores the depths of loyalty, the depths of friendship, and the unknowable depths of another person.

About The Author

Photo courtesy of camyleephotography.com

Jennifer Bradbury is the author of the middle grade novel River Runs Deep and of several critically acclaimed young adult novels, including A Moment ComesWrapped, and her debut, Shift—which Kirkus Reviews called “fresh, absorbing, compelling” in a starred review. Shift was picked as an ALA and a School Library Journal Best Book for Young Adults and is also on numerous state reading lists. A rock climber herself, she is also a teacher in Burlington, Washington, where she lives with her family.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers (May 20, 2008)
  • Length: 256 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781416947325
  • Ages: 12 - 99

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Raves and Reviews

"This is great realistic mystery. Jennifer Bradbury tells a totally believable, totally engrossing story. You will keep the pages turning." -- Chris Crutcher, the Margaret A. Edwards Award-winning author of Deadline and Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

* "Bradbury's keen details about the bike trip, the places, the weather, the food, the camping, and the locals add wonderful texture to this exciting first nove."--Booklist, starred review

* "Bradbury's keen details about the bike trip, the places, the weather, the food, the camping, and the locals add wonderful texture to this exciting first nove."--Booklist, starred review

"Endowing both boys with a heavy dose of idealism, responsibility and self-preservation, Bradbury makes their growth feel genuine and even profound."--Publishers Weekly

"The journey [is] the kind of glorious, frustrating, life-changing experience that the boys had hoped and that readers will yearningly imagine....Readers will come for the thrill of the open road and stay for an authentic picture of a friendship between two young men about to tackle adulthood in very different ways."--The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books

Awards and Honors

  • Kentucky Bluegrass Award Master List
  • ALA Best Books For Young Adults
  • Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers Nominee
  • Beehive Award Master List (UT)
  • Texas Tayshas High School Reading List
  • Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee
  • Capital Choices Noteworthy Books for Children's and Teens (DC)
  • Gateway Readers Award Final Nominee (MO)
  • Children's Sequoyah Book Award Master List (OK)
  • Volunteer State Book Award Nominee (TN)
  • Virginia Readers' Choice Award List
  • Dorothy Canfield Fisher Book Award Master List (VT)
  • Black-Eyed Susan Book Award Nominee (MD)
  • Iowa High School Book Award Nominee
  • Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year Selection Title
  • ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults - Top Ten

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