The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James: Chapters 11–35

by Ashley Herring Blake
After a heart transplant, Sunny St. James resolves to reinvent herself — but she must navigate complicated relationships with her new best friend and with the mother who abandoned her.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–10, Chapters 11–35
25 words 56 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. exuberance
    joyful enthusiasm
    She wipes up a few droplets of coffee spilled by my exuberance.
  2. balmy
    mild and pleasant
    Her hand is warm in mine, as balmy as the sea air.
  3. gauge
    an instrument for measuring and indicating a quantity
    “Keep an eye out, kids,” Nathan says as he checks some official-looking gauge on some official-looking instrument in the wheelhouse.
  4. corral
    collect or gather
    “Huh?” she says, trying to corral her hair.
  5. optimum
    most desirable possible under a restriction
    She let her bun down for optimum hair flipping, but the wind pulls at it like fingers.
  6. gobbledygook
    incomprehensible and wordy jargon
    He tries to answer, but his words are clogged and total gobbledygook.
  7. swoon
    pass out from weakness or physical or emotional distress
    Romance, they call it. Swooning and feelings and flutters.
  8. brood
    think moodily or anxiously about something
    She lets me brood for a few seconds and then comes out with a real zinger.
  9. alcove
    a small recess opening off a large room or garden
    I’m just sitting there in a cute little alcove in the kids’ area, reading through my songs in my notebook, and before I know it, my eyes stick to this pretty blue cover and the most perfect title ever, and I grab the book off the shelf and stick the paper inside.
  10. fathom
    come to understand
    I can’t even fathom walking into middle school—with Margot and all her friends there, laughing at me behind their locker doors—without Quinn.
  11. snippet
    a small piece of anything
    I haven’t read any of it yet. At least, not past that one little snippet in the car, but I feel like those words were enough to chew on for a few years.
  12. flounce
    walk in an emphatic or exaggerated way
    While Quinn lines up three chairs and then lays out her fluorescent pink towel, I see Former Best Friend flouncing toward us in a super-chic black-and-white polka-dotted tankini like she’s the queen of...of...of something really cool.
  13. glower
    look angry or sullen as if to signal disapproval
    “Hey, you made it,” Quinn says.
    I glower.
    “Yeah, thanks for inviting me,” Margot says.
    I glower some more.
  14. swaddle
    wrap very tightly in cloth, as a baby
    “You can’t swaddle her in bubble wrap forever, Katie.”
  15. careen
    move sideways or in an unsteady way
    The wind combs salty fingers through my hair and the sea splashes over my legs, on my arms and face. I careen toward the shore.
  16. furrow
    make or become wrinkled or creased
    After loading up our stuff, we get into the truck and Lena cleans my arm with hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin before she covers it with a large white bandage. Her brows are all furrowed and wrinkly while she does it, but I can’t stop smiling.
  17. expressly
    with a clear or definite meaning or purpose
    “You didn’t do anything wrong?” she echoes. “So, going surfing when I expressly told you not to wasn’t wrong?”
  18. banshee
    a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death
    The kettle whistles, yelling like a banshee, and Kate still hasn’t said anything.
  19. steeple
    a tall tower that forms the superstructure of a building
    There are a few cars here and there as I ride toward the big steeple arching above the palm trees a few blocks ahead, but no one seems to notice me.
  20. iridescent
    having a play of lustrous rainbow colors
    I twist and twirl, looking for my mermaid, a flash of black hair and that iridescent tail, but all I see is blue, blue, everywhere.
  21. ecstatic
    feeling great rapture or delight
    Kate should be ecstatic.
  22. telltale
    disclosing unintentionally
    She lifts my feet and sits down on the end of the couch, setting my legs in her lap. I glance up long enough to confirm the telltale wrinkle and then look back down at my comic.
  23. stifling
    characterized by oppressive heat and humidity
    The air is warm but not stifling, and the sky is a perfect cloudless blue, the sun bright.
  24. parchment
    a superior paper resembling sheepskin
    It’s a light gold color and is textured to look like parchment from the 1700s or something.
  25. woe
    misery resulting from affliction
    We can have a girls’ night and talk about the woes of love.
Created on Mon May 11 14:05:12 EDT 2020 (updated Mon May 11 14:15:40 EDT 2020)

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