Braced - Hardcover

Alyson Gerber is the author of critically acclaimed, own-voices novels Braced and Focused. She is a graduate of The New School’s MFA in Writing for Children and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter. Visit her at alysongerber.com and find her everywhere else at @alysongerber.

Praise for Braced
"Alyson Gerber's Braced is a rare gem of a novel: intimate and engrossing at once. Rachel is the best kind of character -- vibrant and brave, struggling and strong, and most of all impossible not to root for and relate to. A lovely and deep book that will get readers right in the heart."
-- Corey Ann Haydu, author of Rules for Stealing Stars

"Braced is an honest, inspirational story about perseverance in the face of adversity. Readers will come away wishing they could be best friends with Rachel and believing that they, too, are stronger than they ever expected."
-- Alison Cherry, author of The Classy Crooks Club

Bracing for a change

Rachel Brooks is excited for the new school year. She's finally earned a place as a forward on her soccer team. Her best friends make everything fun. And she really likes Tate, and she's pretty sure he likes her b

From Braced:The door opens, and Jules is standing there holding my brace. "It was made just for you," she says, like that's a good thing. Only I'm looking right at it, so I know it's definitely not.The brace is so much bigger than the sample she showed me. It's huge and thick and bright white, with uneven layers of padding on the inside and ventilation holes scattered across the torso that make it look like a machine. I can tell right away that it isn't meant for just my back. On the right side, it goes all the way up to my armpit and dips far down below my underwear, covering part of my thigh. It's longer in the back than in the front, like it has a built-in tail. Fake plastic hips on both sides stick way out. I don't even have real hips yet. On the back, three Velcro straps as wide as my forearm rattle their metal clasps every time Jules moves. It's going to make me look wide and weird, like I swallowed a bathtub.Jules hands it to me. It's heavier than I expect, and I need both hands to hold it. It slips out of my fingers and crashes to the floor."Rachel," Mom says. "You need to take care of your brace. It's important.""I didn't mean to drop it," I say. "I'm sorry."She shakes her head."Why don't we give it a try?" Jules asks, picking the brace up off the floor.I bite down on my lip and do my best not to look directly at it. It's going to be fine. It has to be.