Stronger at the Seams

From award-winning author Shannon Stocker comes a moving and empowering YA novel that explores what it means to find your voice and learn to advocate for yourself. Twyla has always believed things happen for a reason, but when she starts having severe health issues and doctors wont listen to her concerns, she finds herself questioning everything, including her diagnosis and wondering if her mothers death holds the answer.

Twyla enters high school sure of three things: Her best friends will always be there for her, the next four years will be amazing, and her mom was right when she said theres a reason behind everything. Then she gets extremely nauseous and has trouble concentrating during a field hockey game. The doctors say its only a mild digestive issue, but Twyla is convinced theyre wrong. Making things worse, her friends start ghosting her outside of school, even though they tell her everything is fine, and her dad is becoming more distant each time she asks about her moms life before she died.

As Twylas illness intensifies and her diagnosis stays the same, she finds herself feeling like her world is unraveling. Its not until she begins researching her symptoms herselfand discovers something in her moms old records that could hold the answer to her conditionthat she believes there could be some sort of reason for everything shes facing. But will anyone listen to her in time?

Stronger at the Seams:

• Is a contemporary fiction novel for readers 12 and up and adult fans of YA
• Comes from Shannon Stocker, the winner of the 2023 Schneider Award for Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion and an advocate for children with disabilities and chronic disease
• Is a powerful coming-of-age story about family, friendship, and self-advocacy