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From the three-time Coretta Scott King Honor winning author of The Skin I'm In comes a poignant story about a southern girl far from home at an elite girls boarding school in the north, who must find the courage to be herself and to dream of a brighter future, set against the backdrop of the great migration in South Philly.
You can be what you want in life.
Climb as high as you wish.
Nothing can stop you,
not even pedigree.
Hattie Mae is from Seed County, North Carolina. She knows hard work: milking cows, plucking chickens, minding the garden. Her hands are made for manual labor, her feet for dirt—that is, according to Lisa and some of the girls at Miss Abigail’s School for Exceptional Young Ladies in Philadelphia. In their eyes, Hattie Mae will never break into upper society and is unworthy of becoming a doctor or a lawyer.
Though Hattie Mae sticks out like a sore thumb and has more in common with the hundreds of Black folks pouring into the city looking for better opportunities during the Great Migration, she knows that she belongs. She just has to prove it to the rest of the girls—and maybe even to herself.
A moving coming-of-age story about finding the courage to be yourself, chasing your dreams, and lending a hand to others along the way.
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Sharon Flake is the author of the award-winning novel, The Skin I’m In, which was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start. Since then she has become a multiple Coretta Scott King Award–winner and has been hailed as the voice of middle-grade youth by the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Many of her novels have received Notable Book and Best Book for Young Adults citations from the American Library Association. Her writing has been applauded for its on-point narrative that explores issues affecting teens from all walks of life. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Bahni Turpin, winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and several prestigious Audie Awards for her narrations, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. Publishers Weekly magazine named her Narrator of the Year for 2016. She is an ensemble member of the Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, What about Brian, and The Comeback. Film credits include Brokedown Palace, Crossroads, and Daughters of the Dust. She is also a member of the recording cast of The Help, which won numerous awards.