Heather Mullaly

A 17-year-old girl living with HIV tries to hide a secret from the boy she loves in this contemporary YA novel that Kirkus Reviews describes as "balancing a believable young cast with high, real-world stakes. . . engrossing."

Life and Other Complications

Readers' Favorite 2021 Silver Medalist Seventeen-year-old Aly Bennett has been in love with her friend Luke for years. She hasn't told him how she feels for two reasons. 1) She's the girl with HIV. 2) She lied about how she got it. Aly never meant to lie. The words just slipped out on her first day of a support group for kids living with life-threatening conditions. It was the day she met Luke and Caroline, who would become her best friends and the closest thing she has to a family. After so many years, Aly doesn't know how to tell her friends the truth. So she paints and she runs and she tries not to think about the future she can't have. But when a Boston prosecutor asks Aly to testify in a trial-and her relationship with Luke intensifies-things become complicated. If she testifies, Luke and Caroline will learn the truth-that Aly has been lying to them for most of a decade. If she doesn't, a monster could go free, again.

Tired of being teased about his name and his stutter, twelve-year-old Hobart sets out to do a few heroic deeds and earn a place in Knight School. But the local damsels he hopes to save assure him that the last thing they need is rescuing. The runaway bull he tries to catch wears him like a hat. And don't even ask about the ogre. Finally, in desperation, Hobart sets out on the most daring quest he can think of--he will slay a dragon. Or that's his plan anyway. The Legend of Hobart is a hilarious, heart-felt adventure, for the would-be hero in all of us.

The Legend of Hobart

“Mullaly executes the work with finesse, effectively balancing a believable young cast with high, real-world stakes . . .engrossing.”- Kirkus Reviews Seventeen-year-old Aly Bennett has been in love with her friend Luke for years. She hasn't told him how she feels for two reasons. 1) She's the girl with HIV. 2) She lied about how she got it. Aly never meant to lie. The words just slipped out on her first day of a support group for kids living with life-threatening conditions. It was the day she met Luke and Caroline, who would become her best friends and the closest thing she has to a family. After so many years, Aly doesn’t know how to tell her friends the truth. So she paints and she runs and she tries not to think about the future she can’t have. But when a Boston prosecutor asks Aly to testify in a trial—and her relationship with Luke intensifies—things become complicated. If she testifies, Luke and Caroline will learn the truth—that Aly has been lying to them for most of a decade. If she doesn’t, a monster could go free, again.

“Marvelously told; a middle-grade fantasy for everyone.” -Kirkus Reviews Tired of being teased about his name and his stutter, twelve-year-old Hobart sets out to do a few heroic deeds and earn a place in Knight School. But the local damsels he hopes to save assure him that the last thing they need is rescuing. The runaway bull he tries to catch wears him like a hat. And don't even ask about the ogre. Finally, in desperation, Hobart sets out on the most daring quest he can think of--he will slay a dragon. Or that's his plan anyway. The Legend of Hobart is a hilarious, heart-felt adventure, for the would-be hero in all of us.

Heather Mullaly

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