NYT Bestselling Author Sharon M. Draper Releases Highly Anticipated Novel Blended
-- Book chronicles journey of young biracial girl's struggle to define her identity --
October 30, 2018... New York Times bestselling author Sharon M. Draper has released her highly anticipated novel, Blended, published by Simon & Schuster. With millions of copies of Draper's books in print and with her notoriety growing internationally, Sharon has penned her next powerful book that chronicles a young biracial girl's struggle to define her identity amid personal and societal expectations.
Starred Review
★ “Timely and genuine...Draper doesn’t shy away from challenging or uncomfortable topics” – Publishers Weekly
About Blended:
“You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?”
Eleven-year-old Isabella is used to these kinds of comments—her father is black, her mother is white—but it doesn’t mean she likes them. And now that her parents are divorced (and getting along worse than ever), Isabella feels like a push-and-pull- me toy. Being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses and nicknames (one week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood; the next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John- Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves); it’s switching identities. If you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?
It seems like nothing can bring Isabella’s family together again—until the worst happens. Isabella and Darren are stopped by the police. A cell phone is mistaken for a gun. And shots are fired.
Publication date: October 30, 2018
Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781442495005; $16.99; Ages 8-12
About Sharon M. Draper:
Sharon M. Draper is a New York Times bestselling author and recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award honoring her significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens. She has received the Coretta Scott King Award for both Copper Sun and Forged by Fire, and was most recently awarded the Charlotte Huck Award for Stella by Starlight. Her book Out of My Mind has won multiple awards and was a New York Times bestseller for over three years. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she taught high school English for twenty-five years and was named National Teacher of the Year. Visit her at SharonDraper.com.
Press Contact:
Cat Denton | Richlynn Group
cat@richlynngroup.com
615-970-7474
