Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Powell

Eleanor is new and doesn't quite fit in. Her clothes are weird, her family is chaotic and dysfunctional courtesy of her abusive stepfather and her life is difficult. She meets Park on the bus. Park is half Korean and has a father with a military background. His life is ordered and conventional. They are 16 and this is the bittersweet and tender story of how they fall in love. This is a first novel but it is an assured debut from an author who has great gifts in both remembering and conveying the soaring, confused turbulence of adolescence and the overwhelming nature of first love. Funny and charming, sad and nostalgic, you'll be glad you spent time with Eleanor and Park.
Wendy