George Ella Lyon is an award-winning novelist and poet. Her most recent novel, Sonny’s House of Spies (Atheneum, 2004) received starred reviews in SLJ, Publishers Weekly, and The Horn Book; was a CBC Choices; Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2004; and was nominated for The Bluegrass Award and the Volunteer State Award.

Please visit www.georgeellalyon.com



HOLDING ON TO ZOE
Margaret Ferguson Books/FSG, Fall 2011/Spring 2012
Genre: Young Adult
Agent: Brenda Bowen

Jules is a high-school student who discovers she’s pregnant and is determined to have her baby, even though her mother—and her doctor—say she will never come to term. Before too long we realize that something is not quite right with Jules—and with the baby she clings to. As days and weeks pass, Jules’s world grows smaller and smaller. Her mother won’t give her the support she needs. Her friends shy away from her. Don’t they know how much this baby means to Jules? Can’t they see Zoe and she together make a whole?

Through the intervention of a caring doctor and a warm neighbor, we grow to understand why Jules so fiercely cares for, loves, and depends on Zoe. This compelling and haunting story takes us into the damaged heart of a girl and the baby she can’t let go of.