Spotlight: Flyaway by Helen Landalf

I know Helen Landalf, the author of today's spotlight book, as a member of the Elevensies, so I'm super-excited to tell you about her debut novel, FLYAWAY, which releases today from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Fifteen-year-old Stevie Calhoun is used to taking care of herself. But one night, her mom, who works as an exotic dancer in a downtown Seattle nightclub, never comes home.

That’s the night Stevie’s life turns upside down.

It’s the night that kicks off an extraordinary summer: the summer Stevie has to stay with her annoyingly perfect Aunt Mindy; the summer she learns to care for injured and abandoned birds; the summer she gets to know Alan, the meanest guy in high school.

But most of all, it’s the summer she finds out the truth about Mom.

FLYAWAY is the story of a teen girl’s struggle to hold on to what she’s always believed, even as her world spins out of control.

This book tackles a tough subject, drug addiction, with such grace and honesty. And it's received some awesome reviews. Take a look:

"Watching Stevie, a loving person at heart, struggle with her freshman year, family, friendships, and her future during her time at her aunt’s in Seattle is ultimately encouraging, and the fact that she wonders how she is supposed to worry about college when she doesn’t "even know where [she’ll] be living next week" is both authentic and relatively—and refreshingly—tame compared to the extreme dilemmas faced by so many troubled teens in similar titles."—Booklist"

Flyaway is so good I read it in one sitting. I had intended to set it aside for later, but I read the first sentence, and then the next, and by then it was too late; I was hooked!"—Han Nolan, National Book Award winner

"Fans of Ellen Hopkins and Jay Asher: Prepare to fall in love with debut novelist Helen Landalf. Filled with bighearted love and gritty realism, Flyaway rings with bittersweet truth."—Justina Chen, author of North of Beautiful

"For teens who want a realistic story but not the heft and extreme grittiness of Ellen Hopkins."—Kirkus

And here's the trailer. Congratulations, Helen!!