What’s it about?
This is the third in a series of books featuring Katie Nash, a now 13-year-old Army brat, in 1961. In this book, she has moved from Texas to Missouri, and is having a hard time finding friends. She longs to be in with the in crowd; instead she and her one friend are classic losers. The story is about how hard it can be to admit yourself to yourself, to live your life in a way that is congruent with what you really believe.
What was the inspiration?
The so-called Katie books have proven to be very popular, not only with readers, but with me. I found myself missing Katie; so I decided to check in and see what was happening in her life.
Excerpt
“I wish for the first time in my life that I was a boy. The next day I could have gone over and just socked Cynthia on the arm and she could have said cut it out, dickhead, and things would have been back to normal, just like that. We would go out and do some rough things and then power ride our bikes over to McDonald’s, get about forty-five cheeseburgers apiece and then have a belching contest. Yes. At this moment, I wish I were a boy named Jack Armstrong who did not mess up his only good friendship for the sake of a bunch of phonies.”