Driving Home a Love of Books
Megan E. Freeman
Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week and she has been a writer ever since. She writes middle grade and young adult fiction, and her middle grade novels-in-verse, ALONE and AWAY, are both New York Times bestsellers. Megan is also a Pushcart-nominated poet, and her poetry chapbook, Lessons on Sleeping Alone, was published by Liquid Light Press. An award-winning teacher with decades of classroom experience, Megan is nationally recognized for her work leading workshops and speaking to audiences throughout Colorado and across the country.
Author photo credit to Matt Crossley
Afar
Two cousins, one accustomed to living outside civilization and one fleeing the dangers of it, learn to move forward together in this taut and compelling novel in verse that’s a standalone companion to the New York Times bestselling Alone and Away.
River, a budding eleven-year-old nature artist, gains a new viewpoint in life when his estranged cousin, Emma, and her mother come to his off-the-grid mountain compound to escape from a problematic home situation. Through Emma, River learns more about what has been happening in the area outside of their rural outpost (and what his brother, Mustang, has been up to) and starts to question the rules and restrictions that the group has imposed upon the community.
At the same time, Emma’s prevailing sense of dread about her stepfather leads her to cultivate her self-defense skills. With mass evacuations and panic outside the compound and questions stirring within, the cousins must lean on each other to weather the upheaval.
Away
A group of children investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this powerful and dramatic companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Alone told in multiple POVs.
After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat.
And as they begin to investigate, they start to discover that there's less truth and more cover-up to what they're being told. Can they get to the root of the conspiracy, expose the bad actors, and bring an end to the upheaval before it's too late?
Alone
Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town.
When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.
With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten.
As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?
The Secret To Belonging
A neglected teen travels to Norway for a fresh start in this “lush…aching” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) coming-of-age novel in verse about longing, love, and the courage to create joy from the ashes of despair by award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Megan E. Freeman.
You are invisible in your own family. Your parents spend all their care and attention on your brother, who is addicted to drugs. Your dreams don’t matter to anyone but you.
Your only ticket out is a college fund left by your grandfather—until your parents use it to pay for your brother’s drug rehab.
Just when your future seems about to collapse, you are offered a lifeline: a scholarship to become an exchange student in a remote part of Norway. It’s an invitation to begin a new life in a new place with new people…a place where you might finally feel like you belong.
