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Dear missing parts, broken hearts
picked on, passed up
misunderstood
sitting alone

Dear ADD, ADHD, OCD
WX, Y and Z

Dear everyone
Dear you

You are cordially invited
Come as you are
Help yourself to the cake
Spin your troubles round the dance floor

This party’s for you

Dear weird toes
crooked nose
stressed out, left out
freaked out

Dear strep throat, chicken pox
ate a moldy muffin
stepped in poison oak

Dear lost sweatshirt
Dear lost dog

Dear didn’t make the team
didn’t get the part
didn’t pass the test

Dear just moved to this town
Dear desperate to get out of this town

 
 
“In this collection of absurd, funny, and thought- provoking stories, Kathleen Lane shows genuine compassion and empathy for her characters, and even more importantly, for the reader. I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever felt socially awkward or inadequate - well, to everyone.”
— LOUIS SACHAR, AUTHOR OF HOLES, AND THE WAYSIDE SCHOOL SERIES
*“A heartfelt and relatable book filled with moments of darkness and humor, plus a little magic.…Hand to fans of Jason Reynolds’s Look Both Ways.”
— SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED REVIEW
All the varied moods and textures of these pieces come together into an original, convincing, spot-on, and weirdly moving collage portrait of middle-school-age insecurities, anxieties, awkwardness, and interpersonal dynamics.
— HORN BOOK MAGAZINE, STARRED REVIEW
“Few authors have ever put their fingers on the surreal pulse of the experience of middle school as effectively as Kathleen Lane. Listen to me, readers, this peculiar and downright delightful little book is a veritable lifeline. Grasp it tight.”
— BETSY BIRD, A FUSE #8 PRODUCTION, SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
For middle-schoolers tormented by self-consciousness—and what middle-schooler is not?—“Pity Party” offers a kindly dose of comic relief.
— WALL STREET JOURNAL
Pity Party takes you through a series of short stories of vulnerability, anxiety, and doubt capturing the imagination and perspective of young people, and providing the reader access to validation through the shared experience of the characters.
— KEVIN ASHWORTH, CLINICAL DIRECTOR, NW ANXIETY INSTITUTE
 
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The mini mart clerk has been shot, the murderer is loose in the neighborhood, middle school has just started, the man who lives on the other sides of the fence is about to sell his rabbits to a restaurant, on September 23 the mean neighbor boy with the mean dog is getting a gun for his birthday, and Maggie Alder is sure that it is up to her, and only her, to save everyone. The Best Worst Thing is a story about learning what you can control (almost nothing) and the good (sometimes even best) things that can come of finally letting go. 

 
 
An incandescent debut. Long after you’ve finished THE BEST WORST THING, you’ll remember Kathleen Lane’s brave and good-hearted Maggie and how she learns to face her fears. A writer to watch, a voice to savor, a novel to cherish.
— KATHERINE APPLEGATE, NEWBERRY MEDAL-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE ONE & ONLY IVAN
An emotionally intense coming-of-age story. Lane crafts a powerful portrait of a girl wrangling with deeply relatable concerns, which will easily resonate with readers confronting a complex and uncertain world.
— PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY, STARRED REVIEW
I felt as if it was written about me even though the actual details were very different from my life. I think a lot of girls starting middle school will be able to relate to this book. This book is really hard to put down because it has a lot of twists and the characters seem very real.
— NAOMI, BOOKBAR KID & TEEN ADVISORY BOARD
Not only can this book serve as bibliotherapy for those with obsessive-compulsive disorder and high anxiety, but readers of all kinds will also find much here to ponder and discuss.
— SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED REVIEW
 
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Grandma calls it the stuffing arts. She has blue ribbons from the fair and certificates on her wall saying she passed squirrel and hawk class, but she knows how to stuff other things too. The squirrels and skunks she gets from the highway but the birds she gets from the wildlife rescue center. Birds from the road are no good anymore.

“You have to go real careful around the paws,” Grandma says. “See how I do?”

Mostly it’s wild animals in her house—skunk, raccoon, that kind of thing—but she stuffed Reagan too because Reagan was the best cat she ever had. Grandma says she does it because she loves animals and you can admire them better when they’re holding still. MORE

 

 
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The bakery was the last building standing and so everyone gathered around its two and a half walls, its one miraculous window. They took turns walking up to what was left of the counter, ordering biscuits and scones from the unblinking baker now floured in ash. One line of red you could trace up his apron to a flap of skin hanging from his chin.

The biscuits and scones had been reduced to black pebbles and nobody seemed sure what to do with them, why they wanted them. Some licked.  Others, with nothing left to carry, cupped them like eggs, like answers. The children were the most inventive, building palaces around the pebbles, summoning six-horned beasts to guard them. The pebbles were magic, they said. Yes! If you plant them, new buildings will grow! You’ll see, papa, we’ll have a city again! MORE

 

 
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 ...
In need of Heimlich, I am only person who knows Heimlich
Murderer disguised as tricker treater dressed up as murderer
Earthquake on bridge
Elevator asphyxiation
Crossfire
Free round-trip ticket to anyone willing to take the next flight
Running triggers the mountain lions natural instinct to chase
Eric
Marna
Andy
Eric
Falling rocks
Falling trees
Falling balcony
Falling
It likes to be scratched under its neck
Don't worry, the jetty keeps them from coming in this close
With this ring, I thee wed
Leaning over stove in angora pancho
Mattress improperly tied to pickup in front of me
Bear
MORE

 

 
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 The sun is hot through the window. It makes a crooked yellow square on the Doctor’s desk. The boy does not like the Doctor. He is bald. He is old. The boy has thought before that the Doctor would look nicer if he had hair. If he put some pink on his dry white lips.

On the desk are two pictures. The boy is to choose the one that makes him feel happy inside. “Like mommy just gave you a big ice cream cone.”

The boy would like to be outside in the sun, holding his mother’s hand, walking to Sweetie’s for ice cream, and he would very much like to be back in his sister’s room playing dress-up, even though there will be no more dress-up says mother, but he forces his attention on the two pictures. Lady in dress. Man on tractor. “To eat?” he asks.

Doctor’s eyes on boy’s face, boy’s eyes on Doctor’s hand. All on its own, like a robot, like Frankenstein, Doctor’s hand writes words on striped paper.

“Is that what you would like to do? Would you like to eat them?” the Doctor asks, even though he was the one, not the boy, who said ice cream. MORE

 
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Kathleen Lane is founder and program director of Create More, Fear Less, a nonprofit program that.encourages young (and all) people to work with anxiety in a new way—as a source of creativity, empathy, wisdom, and courage.

She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she also co-hosts the art & literary event series SHARE and is currently finishing up her

adult short story collection, Average Life Expectancy, and pondering possibilities for her next book for younger readers.

She is endlessly grateful to her brilliant editor, Susan Rich, her wonderful writing community, her sweet, supportive family and friends, and all of the young people who fill her with inspiration and hope for this world.