Free Girls

"This one is for all the labeled 'bad kids' who need someone to see the good in them. Full of heartache but never short on hope." -Sonido Reyes, bestselling and award-winning author of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School A heartfelt coming-of-age debut about a girl starting over while keeping secret that she's spent the last year in juvenile detention. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Leah Johnson. Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Cooper is back after twelve months at Guiding Hearts Home for Troubled Girls, and nothing is the way it was. Her mom has remarried and now there's a big new house, a shiny new family, and a fancy new school. Jas feels completely out of place, and things only get more complicated when her mom insists that her "fresh start" include hiding the truth of where she's been and cutting off people from her past. As Jas settles into her new life bonding with her seemingly perfect stepsister, making a close-knit group of besties, and maybe even falling for the cute girl in class, it starts to feel like her second chance might actually be real. But when a friend from the detention center reaches out to reconnect, Jas worries that everything she's built could fall apart. How long can she keep her past a secret? And how many times can she spin the truth before she forgets who she really is?

Kristen McCallum received her MA in English from The University at Albany-SUNY. A writer and creative strategist from Mount Vernon, NY, she credits growing up with the adventures of her Jamaican family as the beginning of her fascination with stories and the ways they could be shared. The founder of SafeWordSociety, an initiative that highlighted the depth and beauty of lived experiences in historically-marginalized communities, Kristen has consulted for The Obama Foundation and Peoplmovr, among others. Free Girls is her debut novel.