The Thing About Jellyfish

Finalist, National Book Awards 2015 for Young People's Literature

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin book cover, 2015
ISBN 9780316380843
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

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Twelve-year-old Suzy Swanson wades through her intense grief over the loss of her best friend by investigating the rare jellyfish she is convinced was responsible for her friend’s death.

Judges Citation

The Thing About Jellyfish manages that rarest trick of great literature: It is both simple and huge. Ali Benjamin captures the delicate intimacies of envy and grief, while simultaneously exploring the grandest implications of what it means to be alive. Told in prose that is both elegant and gutfelt, Suzy’s desperate search for a structuring principle to her world leads to poignant self-discovery and a big-eyed look at the meaning of existence itself.

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