COVER REVEAL: GIRL FROM THE ASHES
MY NEWEST MG NOVEL!
I am pleased to share with you the cover of my third Middle Grade Horror Novel, GIRL FROM THE ASHES!
I love this cover so much! I feel like it captures the essence of the book in such a great way. Maeve Norton, you knocked it out of the park again!
Here’s a summary of what this book is about:
Carter tries his best -- he really does -- but he's always getting in trouble at school. Still, he's determined to ace his history project, and luckily, he gets to partner with his BFF, Gianna.
Carter and Gianna are in the library to start their research when the lights flicker and a stack of books falls off a shelf -- what's going on?! Everywhere they go, spooky things continue to happen, going quickly from weird to downright dangerous, until a few days later, Carter's notebook bursts into flames in the middle of class!
They are determined to figure out what's going on -- but to make matters worse, Carter keeps getting blamed for the creepy events! People think he's the one setting the fires! But Carter and Gianna are becoming certain that these are no normal fires... Something terrible once happened where the library now stands, and someone's trying to send them a message about it.
Can these best friends dig into their town's past and stop the strange occurrences before they get any worse? If they're too late, their whole town might go up in flames...
With her signature mix of history and bone-chilling ghost story, this is India Hill Brown at her best.
THE INSPIRATION:
This story was actually directly inspired by a school visit I did last year at Johnsonsville Middle (you can read about this visit here!) The students put together a handmade guide for me of fun things to do around the town of Johnsonville. As I flipped through it, one of the students suggested I visit the Ron Mcnair Life History Center. From this, I researched even more about the famous astronaut from my home state. I learned when Ron McNair was 9 years old, he wanted to check out books from his local library and was refused, because the library was segregated. He was asked to leave, and when he didn’t, police were called on him! THIS is what sparked the idea of GIRL FROM THE ASHES.
I am heavily inspired by little known Black history facts, and once I learned this unfortunate fact about Ron McNair, it led me down a rabbit hole of the history of segregated libraries. As someone who practically lived at both her local and school library growing up, I couldn’t imagine not having the access to one when I wanted.
I’m a boy mom and I read to my boys every single night. We read all kinds of books - about boys, girls, animals, and space! It’s becoming more important to me for them to read books about young Black boys doing different things. I buy them and course it’s inspiring me to continue writing my own. Which is how Carter John, one of the main characters in this dual perspective story, was born.
Carter John is a growing boy, who doesn’t have control of his growing body or his deepening voice yet. He’s constantly getting in trouble and desperately wants to be seen as a good kid. So when these mysterious things are happening around town and he’s getting blamed for it, he is eager to figure out what’s going on.
I won’t say too much about our ghost, but just like Avery from THE FORGOTTEN GIRL and Ellie from THE GIRL IN THE LAKE, segregation makes her prettyyy angry.
I hope you all enjoy GIRL FROM THE ASHES. You can pre-order here, or wherever books are sold, and make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter as we talk more and more about it!
P.S. I’m thinking about doing a Q&A soon! So please let me know if you have any questions!
Warmly,
India