Cover Reveal for Sarah Dooley's Free Verse

Happy Monday! I am excited to reveal the cover for Sarah Dooley's Free Verse. I think we will all be buzzing about it next year. And now, a special message from Sarah. 

I was sitting at my desk one day, trying to decide what to do with the blank page in front of me waiting to be filled, when the light from the window began to flicker. I glanced up in time to see a flock of birds sweep past my window, too quickly to make out any one distinct animal, all of them together like a cloud. Almost before I knew what was happening, I began to write the story of a girl with a song about birds stuck in her head.

Years later, that girl is Sasha, that novel is Free Verse, and I’m thrilled today to reveal its breathtaking cover! When I look at these beautiful birds, I feel once again what I felt that day at my desk: like something exciting is about to take flight.

Free Verse by Sarah Dooley | G.P. Putnam's Sons  Books for Young Readers| Publication Date: March 15, 2016

A moving, bittersweet tale reminiscent of Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons set in a West Virginia coal-mining town

When her brother dies in a fire, Sasha Harless has no one left, and nowhere to turn. After her father died in the mines and her mother ran off, he was her last caretaker. They'd always dreamed of leaving Caboose, West Virginia together someday, but instead she's in foster care, feeling more stuck and broken than ever.

But then Sasha discovers family she didn't know she had, and she finally has something to hold onto, especially sweet little Mikey, who's just as broken as she is. Sasha even makes her first friend at school, and is slowly learning to cope with her brother's death through writing poetry, finding a new way to express herself when spoken words just won't do. But when tragedy strikes the mine her cousin works in, Sasha fears the worst and takes Mikey and runs, with no plans to return. In this sensitive and poignant portrayal, Sarah Dooley shows us that life, like poetry, doesn't always take the form you intend.