top of page

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

 

 

NOTHING BUT BLUE​

Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt, 2013

​

All dead. No one survived. All dead.

This morbid chant haunts seventeen-year-old Blue as she trudges through the countryside with just the clothes on her back, heading to her childhood home on the ocean. Something absolutely awful has happened, she knows it, but she doesn’t know what. She can’t even remember her name, so she calls herself Blue.​

This gripping survival story—peppered with flashbacks to bittersweet times with her boyfriend Jake—strips life down to its bare bones. Blue learns, with the help of a seemingly magical stray dog and kind people along the road, that the important thing is to live.

 

"With clipped prose of intimate detail and keen insight, Jahn-Clough crafts an authentically adolescent first-person narrative. With tight pacing, motley characters, and touches of the spiritual, this is a furious, illuminating adventure."                                — Booklist Magazine
            WATCH THE TRAILER!

     Praise for Nothing But Blue

 

“A girl with no memory, a magical dog, train-hoppers, and a boy named Snake make this sharp, suspenseful book a stand-out read!"

        - Jack Gantos​, Newbery Winning Author 

 

"Lisa Jahn-Clough's Nothing But Blue could fit right into Chaucer's Canterbury Tales since the young narrator is a pilgrim on a quest.  The writing is assured, the undertow seductive, the ending pitch-perfect and uplifting. Highly recommended!"​

​                               - Ron Koertge, YA author 

paperback​

ME, PENELOPE​ ​

Houghton, Walter Lorraine Books,

hardcover 2007, paperback, 2009​


​​Penelope Yeager is like a lot of sixteen-year-olds—she wants more independence from her crazy mother; she wants to get her driver’s license; and she wants to get out of high school, away from her town. More than anything, Lopi wants to find someone to really connect with, someone to love, and she wants to forget all about the accident that happened six years ago. She’s already figured out how to graduate a year early, but the rest isn’t so easy. Lopi tries to navigate the murky waters of sex and love and growing up, but she can’t fool herself—Lopi has a secret that sets her apart: the accident was her fault, she is evil . . .

​

    “A thrilling and emotional read.”       ​

                                                    - Entertainment Weekly.com

​​

    “Jahn-Clough's prose is artfully stilted--reflecting Lopi's uncomfortable approach to life--but infused with startling flashes of beauty, while her doodle-y heart-themed spot art opens each chapter with thought-provoking visual symbolism.”                                          – Horn Book Magazine

hardcover

COUNTRY GIRL, CITY GIRL

Houghton Mifflin, Walter Lorraine Books,

hardcover, 2004, paperback 2009

​

Phoebe Sharp lives on a small farm in Maine, where she reads fairy tales to her goats and snaps pictures with her Instamatic camera. Phoebe doesn’t have a single friend, never mind a boyfriend. Then she meets Melita. With her caramel-colored skin, stylish clothes, and urban attitude, Melita seems as different from Phoebe as two teenage girls could be.
But over the summer, the girls grow to know each other. As their friendship develops, so do other, more confusing feelings. Could their friendship be deepening into something more?
​

 “[This novel] will appeal to fans of Nancy Garden’s Annie on My Mind.”                                             —VOYA

​

    “Jahn-Clough’s descriptions of colliding emotions ring true.”                        –Publisher's Weekly

bottom of page