I have three months left to call Katie my older sister. Then the gap will close and I will pass her. I will get older. But Katie will always be fifteen, eleven months and twenty-one days old.
Hannah’s world is in pieces and she doesn’t need the school counsellor to tell her she has deep-seated psychological issues. With a seriously depressed mum, an injured dad and a dead sister, who wouldn’t have problems?
Hannah should feel terrible but for the first time in ages, she feels a glimmer of hope and isn’t afraid anymore. Is it because the elusive Josh is taking an interest in her? Or does it run deeper than that?
In a family torn apart by grief and guilt, one girl’s struggle to come to terms with years of torment shows just how long old wounds can take to heal.
‘A tender story of grief, trust and healing … Hannah broke my heart.’ - AJ Betts
‘AMAZING. I felt a lump in my throat and like I was going to cry almost the whole way. Very powerful and so real.’ - C. Wheeler, Teacher-Librarian
‘This book is worthy of every single star. Sad, moving and with a tentative friendship at its heart, The Protected will tear your heart to pieces and glue them back together again.’- The Loony Teen Writer ‘5 Star Review’
- Winner of the 2015 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Young Adult
- Shortlisted, CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers
- Longlisted, 2015 Inky Gold Award
- Selected in New Zealand Listener’s Top 50 Children’s Books for 2015