Heather Henson

here's how i see it Rave reviews, an endless request for autographs, my name in lights on Broadway. here's how it is The audience is half empty, I spend zero time onstage, my dad's midlife crisis is about to ruin the playhouse...and my family. Junebug dreams of being a leading lady someday. A serious actress, a stage actress, a real actress. And it should be easy for her to get her start -- her parents own the Blue Moon Playhouse, after all, and her dad performed on Broadway (once). But the truth is, at (almost) thirteen, she's not even a supporting actress or a stand-in or an understudy or even a child actor has-been. In the current Blue Moon production, her role is thunder, props...and stagehand (gopher, actually). And lately it seems like maybe the stagehand mindset -- go unnoticed, don't say a word -- is rubbing off on Junebug's personality. She's starting to feel as though her opinions never count, her worries aren't taken seriously, that she's becoming the ultimate invisible. And that's not a role she's happy with. From author and former playhouse insider Heather Henson comes a novel about growing up, standing out, and what it means to live your life just outside of the spotlight.

Cal is not the readin' type. Living way high up in the Appalachian Mountains, he'd rather help Pap plow or go out after wandering sheep than try some book learning. Nope. Cal does not want to sit stoney-still reading some chicken scratch. But that Book Woman keeps coming just the same. She comes in the rain. She comes in the snow. She comes right up the side of the mountain, and Cal knows that's not easy riding. And all just to lend his sister some books. Why, that woman must be plain foolish; or is she braver than he ever thought? That Book Woman is a rare and moving tale that honors a special part of American history; the Pack Horse Librarians, who helped untold numbers of children see the stories amid the chicken scratch, and thus made them into lifetime readers.

Looking for Alaska meets Breaking Bad in this piercing novel about three teens, caught in the middle of the opioid crisis in rural Appalachia, whose world literally blows up around them. For as long as Miri can remember it’s been her and her dad, Poe, in Paradise—what Poe calls their home, hidden away from prying eyes in rural Kentucky. It’s not like Miri doesn’t know what her dad does or why people call him “the Wizard.” It’s not like she doesn’t know why Cal, her one friend and Poe’s right-hand man, patrols the grounds with a machine gun. It’s nothing new, but lately Paradise has started to feel more like a prison. Enter Fen. The new kid in town could prove to be exactly the distraction Miri needs…but nothing is ever simple. Poe doesn’t take kindly to strangers. Fen’s DEA agent father is a little too interested in Miri’s family. And Cal isn’t satisfied with being just friends with Miri anymore. But what’s past is prologue—it’s what will follow that will wreck everything. Shining a klieg light on the opioid crisis coursing through this country, Wrecked will have readers on the edge of their seat right up until the explosive ending.