Marcella Pixley Books

In a stunning novel set in the 1980s, a girl with heavy secrets awakens her sleepy street to the complexities of love and courage. It's the summer of '83 on Trowbridge Road, and June Bug Jordan is hungry. Months after her father's death from complications from AIDS, her mother has stopped cooking and refuses to leave the house, instead locking herself away to scour at the germs she believes are everywhere. June Bug threatens this precarious existence by going out into the neighborhood, gradually befriending Ziggy, an imaginative boy who is living with his Nana Jean after experiencing troubles of his own. But as June Bug's connection to the world grows stronger, her mother's grows more distant -- even dangerous -- pushing June Bug to choose between truth and healing and the only home she has ever known. Trowbridge Road paints an unwavering portrait of a girl and her family touched by mental illness and grief. Set in the Boston suburbs during the first years of the AIDS epidemic, the novel explores how a seemingly perfect neighborhood can contain restless ghosts and unspoken secrets. Written with deep insight and subtle lyricism by acclaimed author Marcella Pixley, Trowbridge Road demonstrates our power to rescue one another even when our hearts are broken.

The story follows a bullied girl who can see ghosts, navigating her struggles at school while seeking solace with her supportive grandmother, Bubbe. When Anna encounters Ruthie, a ghost from the past, she begins to unravel deep family secrets. As Bubbe's life hangs in the balance, Anna must summon her courage to protect her and mend their fractured family. This poignant novel-in-verse explores themes of bullying, friendship, and healing, enriched by the author's lyrical style and Jewish faith.