Goodbye Stranger is a thoughtful middle-grade novel about seventh graders navigating friendship, identity, and purpose in New York City. The story deals sensitively with a childhood accident and its aftermath, along with emerging attractions and self-discovery, but without graphic content. Stead crafts nuanced, emotionally intelligent characters who model kindness, loyalty, and courage as they face real adolescent challenges.
As Bridge makes her way through seventh grade on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her best friends, curvaceous Em, crusader Tab, and a curious new friend--or more than friend--Sherm, she finds the answer she has been seeking since she barely survived an accident at age eight: "What is my purpose?"As Bridge makes her way through seventh grade on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her best friends, curvaceous Em, crusader Tab, and a curious new friend--or more than friend--Sherm, she finds the answer she has been seeking since she barely survived an accident at age eight: "What is my purpose?"
