Silver Girl
By Leslie Pietrzyk
The Unnamed Press
A young woman making her way from a small town in Iowa to Chicago in the 1980s for college has one goal in mind: make it through, blend in and don’t give away her secrets. She accomplished this in her freshman year as she makes friends, then throughout the first few years of college. She assimilates by taking on the qualities of those around her, but it can’t, and doesn’t, last forever. (February 2018)
Thirteen
By EJ Jackson
Mascot Books
Growing up in the 1970s and ‘80s in Washington, D.C., EJ Jackson led a typical life. She grew up in a neighborhood where children played outside. She attended school and had a sister with whom she didn’t always get along with. But in her debut book, Thirteen, she tackles what was lying underneath, in her heart and mind that wasn’t vogue to discuss. Thirteen is a raw telling of growing up with her present yet selfish father and how she worked through its impact to become the woman she is today. (May 2018)