The Sky Always Hears Me: And the Hills Don't Mind [Paperback]

Kirstin Cronn-Mills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2009

Sixteen-year-old Morgan lives in a hick town in the middle of Nebraska. College is two years away. Her mom was killed in a car accident when she was three, her dad drinks, and her stepmom is a non-entity. Her boyfriend Derek is boring and her coworker Rob has a very cute butt that she can't stop staring at. Then there's the kiss she shared with her classmate Tessa...

But when Morgan discovers that the one person in the world she trusted most has kept a devastating secret from her, Morgan must redefine her life and herself.

Praise for The Sky Always Hears Me:

"Written with candor and splashes of humor...this provocative story captures the essence of adolescent ennui and uncertainty through an uncensored first-person narrative. Stubborn, quick-witted and determined to make her dreams come true, Morgan will draw sympathy from readers."
—Publishers Weekly

"Morgan is a well-drawn character and her funny, frank, profane-but-literate first-person voice rings true and strong-teens might find it liberating to meet a character who can take on life's messiness and forgive it."—Kirkus Reviews

 "Cronn-Mills does a great job of getting into the head of a teenager. The dialog fits and the drama is clearly evident.—Midwest Mix

 The Sky Always Hears Me is a finalist for the 2010 Minnesota
Book Awards in the Young People's Literature category!

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kirstin Cronn-Mills is the author of Minnesota Book Award finalist The Sky Always Hears Me And the Hills Don’t Mind and Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Cronn-Mills received her doctorate degree from Iowa State University and currently teaches in North Mankato, Minnesota, where she lives with her husband and son.

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Flux; 1 edition (September 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738715042
• ISBN-13: 978-0738715049
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,257,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

According to geographers, the American West begins at the 100th longitudinal meridian. Thanks to the fact that this meridian is the main street of her hometown in Nebraska, Kirstin Cronn-Mills grew up six blocks east of the West. Yes, there were cowboys around.

Kirstin is a self-proclaimed word nerd. She learned to read when she was three (according to her mother) and she hasn't stopped since. Her grandmother and her father passed on their love of language to her, and that love became a love affair when she started writing poems in the sixth grade. She still writes poems, but now she focuses on young adult novels. She's pretty sure that teenagers are the funniest, smartest, coolest people on the planet.

In 1992 Kirstin moved from Nebraska to southern Minnesota, where she lives now. She writes a lot, reads as much as she can, teaches at a two-year college, and goofs around with her son, Shae, and her husband, Dan. Her first novel, The Sky Always Hears Me and The Hills Don't Mind (Flux), was a 2010 Minnesota Book Award finalist in Young People's Literature. A short story epilogue to Sky, "The First Time I Got Stranded in the Big Empty," appears in the e-anthology The First Time (Verday and Stapleton, 2011). She also published a middle-grade science book in 2009: Collapse! The Science of Structural Engineering Failures (Compass Point Books). Her short story "Header" will appear on the Young Adult Review Network (YARN) website sometime in the fall of 2012, and a nonfiction book about the lives of transgendered Americans will appear from Lerner in 2014

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wit, angst, and longings September 20, 2009

By K. Kincy

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Where to begin with my review? For me, reading THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME was like eating a delicious new flavor of cake: you know you love it, but you're not quite sure which ingredients were used. After some savoring of the writing, I believe these are key to the recipe:

-Morgan's voice, which hooked me as soon as I read the first chapter on the author's website. Smart, sarcastic, and saturated with a restless yearning for something more than a tiny little town in Nebraska she calls Central Nowhere. John Green hasn't written from the point of view of a girl yet, so far as I know, but if he did, I have a feeling it might sound like Morgan... full of wit, angst, and longings that so powerfully evoke what it means to be a teen.

-The people in Morgan's life: her alcoholic dad, the grandma she loves, the girl who kisses her, the coworker guy she has a crush on. All of these characters grow and reveal their many facets, complicating Morgan's life and making for an intertwined story firmly rooted in deep, scream-at-the-hills emotions.

-The setting of Central Nowhere. This book is best read outside, in the grass, on a windy day, where you can imagine Morgan venting her frustrations and desires. That's how I did it, anyway, and it made the experience all the more vivid. I also love the descriptions of the grocery store where Morgan works. I don't know why, but I've always had this strange fascination with expertly described details of everyday life that usually escape the eye of the author.

Disclaimer: I am a fellow Flux author, though my book won't be out until 2010. I am also, however, a choosy reader. There's no way I would actually go out and buy a book unless I thought I'd devour it, and I try my best to be an honest reviewer. So, honestly, I am recommending that you read THE SKY ALWAYS HEARS ME: AND THE HILLS DON'T MIND, in the hopes that you find it just as good.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sky Always Hears Me April 17, 2010

By Jenny, Wondrous Reads

Format:Paperback

I love reading about independent, confident, snarky girls, and Morgan is just that. I'm the exact opposite of all these things, so I tend to vicariously live through fictional characters and their brushes with an interesting adolescence. Mine was very normal: school, homework, that kind of thing. Morgan and Co. are a million miles away from my own life, yet I still found myself wishing I could be more like her. She's not a perfect role model by a long shot, but she doesn't take any rubbish from anyone, and she lives how she wants to.

Morgan's voice is brilliant; clipped and sharp, with sarcasm available on demand. Her I-don't-care attitude is something to aspire to, and the ability to block out nasty taunts and comments is sure to be a highly desired personality trait amongst teenagers.

Morgan goes through a lot in The Sky Always Hears Me, and a lot is packed into its average page count. She faces choices about her romantic life, her home life, and her future after she leaves Nowheresville. All these plot strands are handled realistically, and they could easily be happening to every student in your nearby high school. The teenage years are a time of change and hard decisions, and Cronn-Mills delves into this with both feet.

Sexual identity is addressed, the topic of sex isn't glossed over, and swearing isn't tactfully omitted. It's very much a book about honesty; both to yourself and to showing the world as it is, and I loved every single page.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars . September 2, 2009

By Mngaby

Format:Paperback

A wonderful book for its teen audience. It conveys the messages it is trying to get across without hammering you in the head with them. It shows perfectly that there are almost always big things that you don't know about even the closest person to you, but that you can still learn to love and forgive them afterwards. A great read for everyone!