In Lynne Rae Perkins’s remarkable book, a girl and her wish grow up.

This book is a character study involving those moments that occur in everyone’s life — moments when a decision is made that sends a person along one path instead of another.

Debbie, who wishes that something would happen so she’ll be a different person, and Hector, who feels he is unfinished, narrate* most of the novel. Both are 14. Hector is a great character with a wry* humor and an appealing sense of self-awareness*. A secondary story involving Debbie’s locket* that goes missing in the beginning of the tale and is passed around by a number of characters emphasizes the theme of the book.

The descriptive, measured writing includes poems, prose, haiku*, and question-and-answer formats. There is a great deal of humor in this gentle story about a group of childhood friends facing the crossroads* of life and how they wish to live it.

There isn’t a particularly strong plot here, but the characters are very well drawn and come across as much more like real young people than you find in most young adult novels.

The fact is that not a lot of “extraordinary*” things happen in most lives. Still, to us, there is nothing more we think about than our own existence.

Young teens will certainly relate to the self-consciousnesses and uncertainty of all of the characters, each of whom is straining toward clarity and awareness. It’s illustrated throughout with black-and-white pictures, comics, and photographs by the author.

This Newbery Award-winner is available at online bookstores like jd.com.

(SD-Agencies)