Criss Cross

written by Lynne Rae Perkins, Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

The book cover of "Criss Cross" by Lynne Rae Perkins features a girl in a grassy field, facing away from us, looking up at the twilit sky. All around her, fireflies gleam.

About

Criss Cross follows the lives of four 14-year-olds in a small town, each at their own crossroads. This ensemble cast explores new thoughts and feelings in their quest to find the meaning of life and love.

“Writing in a wry, omniscient third-person narrative voice, Perkins deftly captures the tentativeness and incompleteness of adolescence,” said Award Committee Chair Barbara Barstow. “In 38 brief chapters, this poetic, postmodern novel experiments with a variety of styles: haiku, song lyrics, question-and-answer dialogue and split-screen scenarios. With seeming yet deliberate randomness, Perkins writes an orderly, innovative, and risk-taking book in which nothing happens and everything happens.”

Awards Won

Title Year
image of the John Newbery medal John Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.
 2006 - Winner(s)