Waiting on Wednesday: Hijacked by Goats by Anne Braden

 

Image: Penguin Random House

Hijacked by Goats by Ann Braden. 176 p. Nancy Paulsen Books/ Penguin Young Readers, September 8, 2026. 9798217110964.

Waiting on Wednesday features Hijacked by Goats by Ann Braden. Isn't that an amazing cover? The book is due out in September and here's the publisher synopsis:

The moving story of a girl struggling with OCD—the bully hijacking her brain—who gets the help she needs to push back.

Josie arrives at Bryce Haven Psychiatric Hospital sure that she’s a bad person and a bad friend. She must be, because her brain constantly yells at her for not being good enough. It tells her she needs to be perfect or else she’ll be alone and miserable forever. She’s so overwhelmed with worries about bad things happening as punishment for her imperfections that she sometimes feels compelled to punish herself.

Then, when Josie gets discharged and returns home, she’s forced to deal with Hal—the mean, smelly bully of a goat her dad is goat-sitting. Hal has a bad habit of climbing where he shouldn’t and refusing to get out of the way.

When Josie’s therapist diagnoses her with OCD, describing it as a bully in her brain, Josie denies it. Surely her brain is just trying to be helpful . . . right? But eventually, she begins to see that her OCD bears a striking resemblance to Hal, so maybe she shouldn’t feel guilty about wanting to kick it out. With her therapist’s help and the support of her dad and friends, Josie might finally be ready to stand up to the bully in her brain.