All Alone in the Universe

When her best friend since the third grade starts acting as though Debbie doesn't exist, Debbie finds out the hard way that life can be a lonesome place. But in the end the heroine of this wryly funny coming-of-age story--a girl who lives in a house covered with stuff that is supposed to look like bricks but is just a fake brick pattern--discovers that even the hourly tragedies of junior high school can have silver linings, just as a house covered with Insul-Brick can protect a real home. This first novel shines--fun, engrossing, bittersweet, and wonderfully unpredictable.01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 6-8)
01-02 William Allen White Children's Book Award Masterlist
00-01 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Bk Award Masterlist
2000 Notable Children's Books (ALA)
00 Riverbank Review Magazine's Children's Books of Distinction Award Nominations

Lynne Rae Perkins was awarded the Newbery Medal for Criss Cross. She is the author of one other book for teens—All Alone in the Universe, a companion to Criss Cross. Lynne Rae Perkins has also written and illustrated several picture books, including The Broken Cat; Snow Music, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and a Book Sense Top Ten Pick; and Pictures from Our Vacation. The author lives with her family in northern Michigan.