A Scar Like a River

From bestselling author Lisa Graff, this important coming-of-age story follows a thirteen-year-old with a mysterious scar on her face--and a big secret she feels pressured to keep.

Fallon Little has a secret--and it's not how she got the enormous scar that divides her face in two.

Thirteen-year-old Fallon has only ever told one person what really happened on the day she got her scar. Why would she? The truth is dark, and Fallon has much brighter things to focus on, like being cast as the lead in the school play, and hanging out with her two best friends, Trent and Kaia. But when Fallon's uncle Geebie dies, his funeral ignites a wildfire of events that Fallon can't manage to tamp down. The school play is spiraling out of control, Fallon's impossible Aunt Lune comes to live with them, and Trent and Kaia might just be so into each other that there isn't room for Fallon in their friend group any more. And when secrets even worse than the one about Fallon's scar threaten to come to light, Fallon might not have the strength to keep them buried for much longer.

Through unflinching prose and with a pitch-perfect voice, bestselling author Lisa Graff explores the power of confronting the past as a way to heal in the present in this propulsive and absorbing tour de force.

* "The story's pitch-perfect tone balances sad and funny moments impeccably....Darkness and light interplay with perfection."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review * "Graff infuses viscerally rendered realities of lingering trauma with moments of lightheartedness to deliver a meticulously calibrated work about a girl who refuses to be defined by her past."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

Author: Lisa Graff
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books-Little Brown and Hach
Published: 02/03/2026
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.40w x 1.60d
ISBN: 9780316570800
Audience: Ages 9-12


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 11/03/2025
Booklist 11/01/2025
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 12/01/2025
Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2025
Horn Book Magazine 01/01/2026 pg. 72

About the Author
Lisa Graff is the author of many award-winning novels, including The Thing About Georgie, Umbrella Summer, Absolutely Almost, Lost in the Sun, and A Tangle of Knots, which was nominated for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. A graduate of UCLA and a recipient of an MFA in Creative Writing for Children from The New School, Lisa also spent five years as an editor at Farrar, Straus & Giroux Books for Young Readers. She now lives with her family outside Philadelphia, and she invites you to visit her online at lisagraff.com.