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What people are saying about Joseph Lunievicz’ debut YA novel Open Wounds:

“Lunievicz’s impressive debut is a dark, often brutal story, balancing some of the meanest villains in recent memory with a beautifully portrayed historical New York and a movie-obsessed boy determined to overcome the hand life has dealt him. … Lunievicz paints a grim picture of Depression-era New York: anti-Semitism, violence, and poverty (an early eviction scene stands out) dominate the storytelling, yet bright spots like Cid’s love of cinema are painted with equal brilliance and realism.
—Starred Review Publisher’s Weekly

“Part Oliver Twist, part Captain Blood, and all gritty excitement, this is
the most unusual debut YA novel I’ve ever read. I loved it. A triumph!”
—Robert Lipsyte, The Contender and Center Field, ALAN Award for Contributions to Young Adult Literature, Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement, American Library Association

“This beautifully choreographed coming-of-age story about a life lived by the fist and sword does exactly what it should – pierces the heart.”
—Barbara Stuber, Crossing the Tracks, finalist for the William C. Morris Award 2010, Kirkus 2010 Best for Teens list title

“The world needs more books like Joe Lunievicz’s Open Wounds. … The story of true friends and enemies, finding yourself, and becoming whole, Open Wounds is dripping with everything that made me love reading when I was a boy: action, compassion, extreme adversity, and heroism.”
—Andrew Smith, The Marbury Lens (Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan), Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2010, Booklist Editor’s Choice, 2010, ALA/YALSA Best books for Young Adults 2011

“A heart-wrenching yet surprisingly hopeful and tender storyof a boy coming of age in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s, learning that family means far more than blood and bone, that true friendship weathers time and place and
that living with scars is far different than living scarred.”–Christina M. Meldrum, Madapple (Knopf 2008), finalist for the PEN USA Literary Award and the William C. Morris Award; and Amaryllis in Blueberry (February 2011 from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)

Read what others are saying about Open Wounds here.