This May we will be reading How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford, a quirky realistic fiction title for young adults that has been featured on many 2009 “best of” lists. Here’s a brief description of How to Say Goodbye in Robot from the starred review in Kirkus:

Surprising everyone at their private school, a sardonic loner befriends the new girl in this unusual story of an intense platonic relationship between two misfits. Dubbed a robot by her emotionally unstable mother after she fails to manifest sufficient heartbreak over the death of their gerbil, Bea meets pale, withdrawn Jonah, maliciously called “Ghost Boy” by their peers. Almost immediately, she realizes that she has more in common with Jonah than with the catty, insular girls that surround her and begins to rely increasingly heavily on him even as she discovers more about his tragically strange past.

Please add your comments about May’s pick here, and we welcome you to revisit past discussions of our other great reads to add your thoughts.