Holding Smoke

(Hardback)

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Description

Smoke is wrongly serving time at a juvenile rehabilitation centre, The Y. Unlike his fellow inmates, Smoke is not in constant imprisonment; after a near death experience leaves him with the ability to shed his physical body at will, Smoke is able to travel freely outside the concrete walls of The Y, gathering information for himself and his fellow inmates. Smoke doesn't care that the threads that bind his soul to his body are strained that one day he may not make it back in time. That is, until he meets Pink, a girl who sees him for who he truly is.

Reviews

"Holding Smoke is a smash-you-in-the-mouth book that's intelligent, sharp-edged and action packed. Fans of hard-hitting YA better get ready to strap themselves in, because Elle Cosimano has arrived on the scene."--Alan Lawrence Sitomer, author of The Hoopster and Caged Warrior
"[A] fantastic yet real portrait of a survivor seeking answers . . . Intertwined spectral and real worlds deliver double the thrills."--Kirkus Reviews
"A complex story of shady guards, honorable bad guys, romance, and the foibles and limitations of the justice system."--The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"An inventive paranormal gambit, a compelling lead character, and a plot that twists and turns through to the last page . . . HOLDING SMOKE stands out as original and inventive."--Claudia Gray, New York Times best-selling author of the Evernight series
"Compelling . . . Cosimano, a warden's daughter, brings authenticity to the depiction of prison life . . . Smoke is a complicated, sympathetic character, and his redemption feels earned."--Booklist
"Part ghost story, part redemption story, part mystery, and very engaging."--School Library Connection

Author Bio

Elle Cosimano grew up in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, the daughter of a maximum security prison warden and an elementary school teacher who rode a Harley. As a teen, she spent summers working on a fishing boat in the Chesapeake Bay. A failed student of the hard sciences, she discovered her true calling in social and behavioral studies while majoring in psychology at St. Mary's College of Maryland. Fifteen years later, Elle set aside a successful real-estate career to pursue writing. Her debut novel, Nearly Gone, was an Edgar Award Finalist, winner of the International Thriller Writers' Best Young Adult Novel Award, and winner of the inaugural Mathical Book Award recognizing mathematics in children's literature. Elle lives with her husband and two sons in Mexico, somewhere between the jungle and the sea. Website: www.ellecosimano.com. Twitter:@ellecosimano.