Tweet Dear Student by Elly Swartz opens on Autumn’s first day of sixth grade. Even though her dad has left their home for a two-year stint in the Peace Corps, he still offers her a suggestion: get involved in one … Continue reading
Category Archives: Contemporary Fiction
Tweet The River Between Hearts by Heather Mateus Sappenfield starts on the first day of summer after fourth grade, when Rill Kruse follows her cat Clifford into the woods and to the family tree house. The one her dad helped … Continue reading
Tweet Guest post by Pamela Jouan-Goldman and Julia Goldman What started as a pandemic project morphed into something more for my daughter and I, inspired by her own journey as an athlete. As a mother of a 12-year old who … Continue reading
Tweet Eleven-year-old Elinor Malcolm feels the pressure of living up to her parents’ expectations. Especially those of her mom, a high-profile lawyer in New York City. Enrolled in a ballet school she doesn’t want to attend, Elinor takes to skipping … Continue reading
Tweet Curtis loves to cook. Whether it’s whipping up a cheese soufflé for his mom and younger sister or earning extra money for the family by selling gourmet cupcakes, he likes to use his culinary skills to make other people … Continue reading
Tweet Layla dreads starting 8th grade, another year, she assumes, of mediocre grades and the feeling of just getting by. Life at home has difficult moments too: her dad’s been gone since she was a baby, her mother juggles single-parenting … Continue reading
Tweet Twelve-year-old Abbey thinks the worst thing about starting seventh grade is being the new girl (again) when her dad is stationed at an Army base in Tennessee. But then planes fly into the World Trade Center in New York … Continue reading
Tweet Thirteen-year-old Nellie has a lot on her shoulders. Her mother left the family, her dad sometimes gets depressed and stays in bed for days on end, and her younger brothers need someone around to be responsible. She believes if … Continue reading
