NEW!

Welcome to my NEW! page! I’m excited to introduce you to the books I’ve been working on over the past couple of years. Two of them are brand new, one is a revision and reissue of one of my most critically acclaimed young adult novels, and the fourth is not even published yet, but should be coming out soon!

Originally published in 1995, A Place To Call Home was an American Library Association Notable Book for Young Adults. Three decades later its message is, sadly, still relevant. When teenage Anna O’Dell’s mother doesn’t return home one afternoon, Anna is not overly concerned. It’s happened before, many times. But when a day turns into a week and there is still no word, Anna fears that this time her mother is gone for good, leaving Anna to care for her five-year-old sister, Mandy, and her infant brother, Casey. Thus begins an odyssey that will require all of Anna’s strength and resourcefulness, eventually leading her to discover the painful truth of her mother’s past.

Originally published as a serial novel for The Boston Globe, and then syndicated in newspapers all over the country, The Liberty Pole is now a novel. Set on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in the tumultuous days leading up to the Revolutionary War, The Liberty Pole tells of the struggles of the island community to stay outwardly neutral, while secretly supporting the Patriot cause. Ultimately compelled to choose a side, the islanders raise a Liberty Pole to show the British where they stand, but when that symbol of freedom is threatened, three heroic young girls take matters into their own hands.

When city girl Laila is invited to spend a week at her friend Natalie’s camp in the wilds of Maine, she is excited, but a bit nervous, too. In all her 12 years of life, she’s never been away from home by herself for more than a night or two, and Natalie’s isolated cabin deep in the woods is about as far from the safety and security of Laila’s home in Brooklyn as anyone can get. The experiences that await her will test her courage to its very limits, and challenge her to find the strength to face some of the most terrifying moments of her life.

AND COMING SOON: TESS - A Dog’s Tale

Tess is smart, smarter than most people, in fact. She knows this because Henry tells her so, and Henry has never given her any reason to doubt him. Tess and Henry live in an old lighthouse keeper’s cottage at the end of a long, bent arm of sand that reaches out from the mainland and rises up at the end like fist, as if trying to hold onto the sea and keep it from rolling away. Henry is Tess’s person, and he’s the best person in the whole world. Life doesn’t get any better than roaming the beach with Henry in the summer, and curling up next to him by the fireside in the winter… Until the day that Tess comes home from a romp on the beach, and finds Henry gone. Where did he go, and when will he come back? What if he doesn’t come back? Tess’s love, loyalty, and courage are put to the test as she struggles to survive on her own until her beloved Henry returns.