Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Saunders
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Tender story of first love tackles existential ideas.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 12+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
When EVERYTHING NEW AGAIN begins, 18-year-old Solomon, a high school senior with a White mother and Black father, heads from his home in Portland to spend time with his mother in the Larch Mountain area. While delivering flowers from his mother's floral shop to a local family-owned funeral home, he meets Bliss, the 17-year-old daughter, and there's an instant connection.
Is It Any Good?
A touching, layered experience awaits readers of this book. In Everything New Again by Renée Watson, the author seamlessly weaves themes of beginnings and endings, childhood innocence and old-soul wisdom, secrets and openness, and love and death. These concepts are tied together through the use of beautiful metaphors: an extinct volcano, cut flowers, and living forests. A skillfully crafted, emotional novel worth teens reading attention.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about different examples of courage in Everything New Again, from initiating a hard conversation to facing fears of death. When have you had to muster courage? What acts of courage have you witnessed in other people in your life?
The story is told through alternating first-person views from the two main characters. Why do you think the author made that choice? How does this technique offer insight into how the characters communicate with one another?
Many of the characters in this story are constantly balancing gratitude and grief: at funerals, as well as in family relations that are loving but in need of healing. How do you and your family cultivate gratitude? What are you grateful for?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Family Life
- Topics : Family Stories ( Single Parents ) , Friendship , Faith
- Character Strengths : Communication , Courage , Gratitude
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Bloomsbury YA
- Publication date : October 13, 2026
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 13 - 18
- Number of pages : 304
- Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Award : Common Sense Selection
- Last updated : October 22, 2026
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