Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is the two-time Newbery Honor winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of several acclaimed middle grade novels, including Fighting Words, The War That Saved My Life, The War I Finally Won, and Jefferson’s Sons. She and her husband have two grown children and live with their dog, several ponies, a highly opinionated mare, and a surplus of cats on a fifty-two acre farm in Bris­tol, Tennessee. Visit her at [...].

Essential reading: Recipient of seven starred reviews, an Indie Next selection, and hailed by Colby Sharp as "One of the most important books ever written for kids," Fighting Words is, as PW says, "an essential, powerful mirror and window for any reader."

Shout for the middle grade set: Though this is fiction where Shout is memoir, stories demystifying and de-shaming child sexual abuse are vital for kids. Like Shout, Fighting Words takes on the topic in a way that's compassionate, appropriate, and helpful. It's framed within a story that is sometimes very difficult and punctuated with moments of humor and joy.

Powerhouse protagonist: Ten-year-old Della, our heroine, is why this book works: She's hilarious, vulnerable, and lost, a loudmouth learning how to use her voice and volume for what matters most.

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley: Award winner Kim Bradley writes Della's story from personal, lived experience with child sexual abuse. She addresses the topic fearlessly and empathetically, and with the clear insight, age-appropriateness, and surprising levity we have all come to love, expect, and cherish in a Kimberly Brubaker Bradley novel.

Sisterhood: Della and her sixteen-year-old sister, Suki, are inextricable until they're forced apart. You adore these two girls together-their loyalty, their love, their profound admiration for each other-and you root for them to grow individually, knowing it's their only path back to each other.

Boys need this novel too: First, boys also experience abuse; this book is for them. Also, the story's nuanced take on boys' behavior toward girls explores the roots of toxic masculinity and the misplaced notion that "boys will be boys."