Kate Sweeney – författare

A love story perfect for fans of Nina LaCour and Jandy Nelson about a girl who moves cross country and finds herself falling for someone new who throws her whole life out of order. "Beautifully captured, like a photograph of a stolen moment. I ached for Marigold in her journey to move forward while not forgetting her past. Kate Sweeney's Catch the Light overflows with grief, love, and growing up."--Amy Spalding, bestselling author of We Used to Be FriendsNine months after the death of her father, Marigold is forced to pick up and move from sunny Los Angeles all the way across the country to rural upstate New York. According to her mom, living with her aunt in a big old house in the woods is the fresh start Marigold and her little sister need. But Mary aches for the things she’s leaving behind—her best friend, her older sister, her now-long-distance boyfriend, and the senior year that felt like her only chance at making things feel normal again. On top of everything, Mary has a troubling secret: she’s starting to forget her dad. The void he’s left in her memory is quickly getting filled with bonfires, house parties, and hours in the darkroom with Jesse, a fellow photographer and kindred spirit whom she can’t stop thinking about. As the beauty of Mary’s new world begins to sink in and her connection with Jesse grows stronger, she feels caught between her old life and her new one. Mary might just be losing her grip on the pieces of her life that she's tried so hard to hold together. When the two finally come crashing together, Mary will have to decide what she really wants and come to terms with the ways that the loss of her dad has changed who she is. Even if she can't hold on to her past forever, maybe she can choose what to keep.

A gorgeous contemporary romance about two ex-best friends, Cass and Syd, on a life-altering road trip following the reunion tour of the Darlas—the band Cass’s mom was in when she died. Perfect for fans of Nina LaCour, Mary H.K. Choi, and Jandy Nelson.After their high school graduation, former best friends Cass and Syd are gearing up for their futures. Cass has planned to go to college to become an engineer, while Syd—despite the fact that her family thinks she’s messed up her whole life—has lined up a sound internship at a historic music venue. But Cass is keeping secrets. Though his dad has forbidden it, Cass has been playing music, taking trips to San Francisco BART stations to play and make money. Somehow, it’s become a way for Cass to connect with his mother—who was also a musician—who died in a drunk driving accident on the way back from a gig when he was one. But after Syd catches Cass playing at the BART station, and Cass finds out his mom’s old band the Darlas is going on a reunion tour, everything changes. On impulse, Cass invites Syd to the first Darlas show, and without telling anyone, they make a break for it. Turning one show into a cross-country journey, the two former friends throw away all their plans for the future and embark on a life-altering road trip following the tour, keeping it a secret from their friends and family. Along the way, they’ll untangle the messy threads of how they became “ex”-best friends, experience the power of nature and music, and decide what they really want their lives to be. Maybe, through it all, Cass and Syd can find a way back to each other, too.

A dark and powerful mystery perfect for fans of Courtney Summers and true crime podcasts, in which a teen girl must do whatever it takes to find her missing cousin—who everyone else thinks is dead.Remy Green is missing. Eight days after the death of her boyfriend, River O’Dell, the magnetic, golden-haired girl disappeared in the dead of night.   Jules Green, Remy’s cousin, is her opposite in every way: awkward, shy, and a bit strange, never feeling at home in the small town of Black Falls, NY. The only place she has ever belonged is with River and Remy. Now she’s on her own—and everyone around her believes that Remy is dead.But Jules can still hear Remy’s voice in her head, urging her to keep looking. With the help of River’s cousin Sam, a troubled and mysterious boy, Jules starts untangling the truth of what exactly happened. Through her search, Jules must delve into the dark corners of her hometown—unearthing family secrets and hidden truths about the two people she thought she knew most. Who was Remy, really, behind the popular-girl façade she wore? What trouble was she involved in? And can Jules find a way to save her from it? Or is this a dead girl story after all?

Someone dies. What happens next?One family inters their matriarch’s ashes on the floor of the ocean. Another holds a memorial weenie roast each year at a green-burial cemetery. An 1898 ad for embalming fluid promises, “You can make mummies with it!” while a leading contemporary burial vault is touted as impervious to the elements. A grieving mother, 150 years ago, might spend her days tending a garden at her daughter’s grave. Today, she might tend the roadside memorial she erected at the spot her daughter was killed. One mother wears a locket containing her daughter’s hair; the other, a necklace containing her ashes.What happens after someone dies depends on our personal stories and on where those stories fall in a larger tale—that of death in America. It’s a powerful tale that we usually keep hidden from our everyday lives until we have to face it.American Afterlife by Kate Sweeney reveals this world through a collective portrait of Americans past and present who find themselves personally involved with death: a klatch of obit writers in the desert, a funeral voyage on the Atlantic, a fourth-generation funeral director—even a midwestern museum that takes us back in time to meet our death-obsessed Victorian progenitors. Each story illuminates details in another until something larger is revealed: a landscape that feels at once strange and familiar, one that’s by turns odd, tragic, poignant, and sometimes even funny.

Infant Mental Health (IMH) and the Pyramid Model (PM) are two frameworks with an important common goal: supporting the mental health and social-emotional well-being of infants, young children and their families. For the first time ever, one book integrates these two frameworks to create a more effective, knowledgeable, and responsive early childhood workforce. Developed by a team of visionary early childhood experts, this timely book debunks misunderstandings around IMH and PM and clearly illustrates how these two approaches can combine to support better outcomes for children and families. This book reviews the core concepts of both approaches and explores how integrating them can help programs and professionals: Strengthen professional development by implementing an integrated reflective practice approach Work effectively for diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and justice Use a trauma-informed approach to support healing in young children and families Apply evidence-based strategies to address behaviors that parents and teachers find challenging Act as both “stress detective” and co-regulator when children are dysregulated Understand and respond to children’s needs rooted in multidisciplinary perspectives Increase parental confidence and strengthen the parent–child relationship Enhance data-informed decision-making Use the best of mental health consultation and Pyramid Model coaching to meet infants’ and young children’s needs