Whenever Lakeside 8th grade English teacher Sarah Callender refers to Lucy Bains, the main character of her recent debut novel Lucy in Between, she does so in an almost maternal fashion. “I’ve known Lucy longer than I’ve known my own kids,” says Ms. Callender. “I feel so much tenderness towards her and I feel very protective of her in the same way I feel protective of my own kids.” Ms. Callender doesn’t feel like she was responsible for creating Lucy’s character, and instead views her as a fully formed person whose story she transcribed onto paper like a stenographer. “I don’t feel like I can take any credit for her,” she says.
Lucy in Between was published on Aug. 18, 2026 by Holiday House. The book follows Lucy Jane Bains as she and her mother grapple with the grief that follows Lucy’s brother Henry, a seventeen-year-old violin prodigy, dying by suicide. Lucy and her mother spend a summer in Peru with Lucy’s absent father to try to cope with their grief. Eventually, the pair meet a friendly bookstore owner named Ernesto, who helps the pair process their emotions and brings them closer to each other.
Ms. Callender’s portrayal of characters like Henry, who struggles with his mental health throughout the book and ultimately takes his own life, is inspired in part by her own experiences with and observations about mental health. She was diagnosed with depression in her early 30s, a struggle which she strives to be open about with the school community in the interest of destigmatizing mental health-related conversations.
One aspect of her diagnosis she recalls is that it was the first time she discovered the vocabulary required to express what she had experienced for years. “Now, I know what depression feels like,” she recalls thinking. “[When I got the diagnosis] I was like, ‘oh, I had that when I was in middle school’ … but I didn’t know how to say ‘I am feeling depressed’ … I didn’t know how to ask for help.”
Ms. Callender sees this conflict play out in Henry’s life in the book. “Henry, to me, is heartbreaking,” Ms. Callendar says. Although Henry understands something is wrong, because no one close to him notices his internal struggle and he doesn’t know how to express it to them, his mental health deteriorates rapidly.
Henry’s character is also informed by Ms. Callender’s prior experiences as a teacher navigating mental health conversations with her teenage students in an era when self-harm and suicide awareness training for educators was virtually nonexistent. She recalls an incident at one of the schools she used to teach at where a girl came into class with bandaged wrists. “She was kind of making a show of it in a way,” recounts Ms. Callender. “She pulled up her sleeves … I was nervous and didn’t know what to say … but like, she was hurting … it’s not like I sensed something was the matter. Like, she was showing me.” The incident reaffirmed Ms. Callender’s conviction that “teenage people carry these painful feelings … and sometimes … they just have to reach out a little [for you to notice it].” She imbued Henry with the same sentiment when working on his character for Lucy In Between. “He was really hurting…but nobody really noticed,” she said.
Another topic explored throughout the book is parenthood, through the characters of Lucy and Henry’s mother and father. Their father is an archaeologist who left the family when the siblings were young and moved to Peru to study the Incas. Their mother is a cellist who pushes Henry significantly to embrace his potential as a prodigious violinist, but fails to notice the decline in his mental health until it’s too late. Ms. Callender noticed that adult readers really dislike Lucy and Henry’s mom, while having no strong opinions on their dad. “I think there’s often more pressure on moms to be good moms,” says Ms. Callender of this observation. “I’m curious … if the archaeologist explorer had been [Lucy’s] mom, would people have been more critical of her?”
Ms. Callender herself harbors no resentment for Henry and Lucy’s mom and instead feels empathy toward her. “Parents are generally doing the best they can,” she says. “And I genuinely think Henry’s mom was doing the best she could. … Even Henry and Lucy’s dad … his best didn’t look very good … but he probably was also doing the best he could.” As a parent herself, Ms. Callender recognizes the challenges that come with parenthood.
Overall, students have greatly enjoyed Lucy in Between. Aarav D. ’30 says that he “found it a really good mix of sad topics and also uplifting topics.” He says that readers can see the care with which Ms. Callender handled the serious moments, such as the death of Henry. Celia C. ’30 adds, “it [Lucy in Between] was just full of emotion and life,” and the book inspired her to be more resilient.
Students’ favorite characters include bird lover Michael, bookstore owner Ernesto and Lucy. Celia says that “it was like she [Lucy] was my little sister.” Mireya W. ’29 specifically finds Lucy’s miming scenes to be descriptive, especially since she has “never gone inside the head of someone who was miming.” It’s clear how much research went into the book and the various topics it touches on.
After 10 years searching for a publisher, Ms. Callender and her supporters in the Lakeside community finally get to watch Lucy unfurl into the world, sharing her hobbies to her struggles and beyond. As Ms. Callender says, “Lucy is now born.”