TELL ME A SECRET by Holly Cupala

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: HarperTeen
• Release Date: June 22, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0061766664
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl…

In the five years since her bad-girl sister Xanda’s death, Miranda Mathison has wondered about the secret her sister took to the grave, and what really happened the night she died. Now, just as Miranda is on the cusp of her dreams—a best friend to unlock her sister’s world, a ticket to art school, and a boyfriend to fly her away from it all—Miranda has a secret all her own.

Then two lines on a pregnancy test confirm her worst fears. Stripped of her former life, Miranda must make a choice with tremendous consequences and finally face her sister’s demons and her own.

In this powerful debut novel, stunning new talent Holly Cupala illuminates the dark struggle of a girl who must let go of her past to find a way into her own future.

ONE WISH

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2009
• Publisher: Westside Books
• Release Date: April 23, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-934813-05-8
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

Overweight Wrenn Scott desperately wants to be popular and snag a hot boyfriend. Living with her single mom and younger sister, Karly, she lands a lead role in the high school musical, her voice for once overshadowing her weight. Pushing to get thinner by opening night, Wrenn’s waistline shrinks as she learns all the wrong ways to lose weight from a new “it-girl” friend in the show. Meanwhile, her mom is falling for Phil, “a balding Channel 8 News-nerd”; her sister is wrapped up in her own share of middle school drama, and Wrenn’s best friend has fallen for a guy she met online-but hasn’t even seen yet! Topping it off, geeky stage manager Steven has a crush on her. But Wrenn doesn’t want to be seen with him-she’s holding out for a trophy boyfriend whom everyone will envy. By opening night, the old Wrenn has almost disappeared. After a crisis reveals her weight-loss tricks, Wrenn realizes there are much more important things than being thin, popular, or even dating a hunk.

Praise!

Moving and heartfelt, ONE WISH is an engaging story of one girl’s bittersweet journey from ‘nobody’ to ‘noticed.’ Leigh Brescia perfectly captures what it’s like to long for something that’s just out of reach—and the sometimes surprising reality that comes from actually attaining it.

-Alyson Noel-

New York Times Bestselling author of Evermore and Saving Zoe

Leigh Brescia’s One Wish is a poignant story of a girl’s struggle to find herself in the midst of family turmoil and new temptations. Wrenn captures the reader’s heart with her quirky habits and shy dreams. Throughout the book, readers will wish Wrenn success as she tries to make her dreams come true, but Brescia proves that even when wishes don’t come true, life can be better than we ever thought.

-Mary Beth Miller-

Author of Aimee and On the Head of a Pin

“I loved One Wish and defy anyone to read it without a box of tissues handy . . .”

-Amanda Ashby-

author of Zombie Queen of Newbury High and You Had Me at Halo

“Brescia tackles important issues in her first novel, and Wrenn’s thoughts and the characters’ dialogue feel honest. . . . Wrenn’s shallowness makes her less sympathetic . . . but no less believable. Wrenn does finally show some growth and depth in the final chapters when she . . . begins to reflect on the choices she’s made.”

-Publisher’s Weekly-

“This is perhaps a less-stark view of eating disorders . . . but it is still realistic enough, and there is no happily-ever-after ending. The characters are well developed and three-dimensional, even the adults. This engrossing novel lets readers see this issue up close without being completely pessimistic.”

-School Library Journal-

MY BIG NOSE AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2009
• Publisher: Harcourt
• Release Date: April 1, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): 978-0152066437

It’s the end of junior year, and summer is about to begin. The Summer of Passion, to be exact, when Jory Michaels plans to explore all the possibilities of the future–and, with any luck, score a boyfriend in the process. But Jory has a problem. A big problem. A curvy, honking, bumpy, problem in the form of her Super Schnozz, the one thing standing between Jory and happiness. And now, with the Summer of Passion stretched before her like an open road, she’s determined for Super Schnozz to disappear. Jory takes a job delivering wedding cakes to save up for a nose job at the end of the summer; she even keeps a book filled with magazine cutouts of perfect noses to show the doctor. But nothing is ever easy for accident-prone Jory–and before she knows it, her Summer of Passion falls apart faster than the delivery van she crashes. In her hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel, Sydney Salter delivers a story about broadening your horizons, accepting yourself, and finding love right under your nose.

“Complex, likeable, believable characters and a fresh, appealing fictional voice pull together this very agreeable summer romance.” –Kirkus Reviews