I told Gabriel that ghost medicine was everything we could ever want; that it was more powerful than we knew, more than we could reckon with. And in the end, I guess it did make us disappear. But it wasn’t like a cheap illusion in a magic show, because we didn’t realize that it took us in pieces...

1. -Ghost Medicine,
   

a 2009 ALA Best Books for Young Adults

He builds an altar there: the gun, the row of bullets that point up from the dirt, a silver rood formed there by the crossing of the scissors and the razor.

1. -In the Path of Falling Objects,
   

a 2010 ALA Best Books for Young Adults

“Do you want me to kill you now, Jack?”

“No.”

“Ask me.”

1. -The Marbury Lens,
   

a 2011 ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults

There were five gunshots.

I did the math.

Then it was quiet as death.

-Stick,

a 2012 ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee

“You think I don’t recognize you?”

“I knew who you were, old man, the first time I saw you.”

The old man shut his mouth. He swallowed.

I said, “Do you know what this place is?”

“I only know what it isn’t, boy.”

“You could start with that, if you want.”

“It isn’t Pope Valley. It isn’t the tree you and your father were hung from.”

I spit down into the ash between my legs.

- Passenger,

coming October, 2012

Finding Humor in Getting Hit in the Balls = The Universe Minus One

- Winger

coming May, 2013

It’s a dead cow back yonder against that wall

The kid got to his feet.

He looked like he was just born, like he’d never stood up one time yet in his life, wobbling as he was with the rocking of the train car. His pants were soaked wet, from his crotch down past his knees.

1. -Once There Were Birds,
   

coming spring, 2014