Description
How do you go on after making a life-altering discovery about yourself?
Sophie St. John’s grandmother, a world-renowned writer, may be as talented as she is rude, but Sophie is just Sophie: clumsy, emotional, and prone to outbursts.
When she stars in a class play based on her grandmother’s famous novel and then comes across an old legal case while doing research for homework, Sophie uncovers a profound, devastating, life-changing secret — a secret her parents have kept from her since birth.
Faced with a revelation that changes her entire future, Sophie must confront her dysfunctional family, ponder her life goals, and summon the courage to finally start living on her own terms.
Author Bio
Alison Hughes is an award-winning author of many books for children and young adults, including The Silence Slips In, winner of the R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature and Hit the Ground Running, a nominee for the Governor General's Literary Award. Her books have been nominated eleven times for children’s choice awards across Canada, and her short stories have appeared in anthologies and have been finalists for the CBC Nonfiction Prize and the Writers’ Union of Canada Short Fiction Competition. She works as a writing advisor and editor at the University of Alberta and writes to the accompaniment of snoring dogs. She lives in Edmonton with her family.
Review Quotes
“The character of Sophie is intelligent, and readers will recognize her struggles of trying to fit in, meet others’ expectations of her, and how she reacts to discovering life altering information. … Life Expectancy would be appropriate for any young adult reader, especially in helping readers understand how others may be affected by serious illness or other situations that aren’t happening directly ‘to them,’ and foster understanding and compassion.”
“This moody, feisty, clumsy character may prod her young adult readers into looking at their own lives, perhaps realizing just how precious their time is and how important it is for all of us to live our lives fully each and every day.”
— Canadian Review of Materials