about the book
With the end of summer after Kaleb’s senior year quickly approaching, his girlfriend Ashleigh is worried that he will leave for college and forget about her. The solution? Her “friend” suggests at a pool party that she snap a swimsuit-less photo of herself to give to Kaleb. That ought to make him remember her!
Then Ashleigh and Kaleb break up, and before Ashleigh knows it, all the baseball team has the photo on their phones.
The humiliation is unbearable. More people around the school get the photo. Ashleigh’s friends and relatives distance themselves from her, and she is sentenced by the school board and local police to community service.
Ashleigh never knew how alone someone could feel. That is, until she meets Mack, who also is on community service—and is the only one in town who refused to look at her photo.
about the author
Jennifer Brown was born outside of Kansas City, Missouri, and moved often as a child.
She wrote her first tale in fourth grade; it was two pages long, and the main character had a name like Donna Schlieigermeigssterkks. Valerie’s grandmother got such a hoot out of the story, she called an aunt and read the whole thing over the phone, laughing. Jennifer loved the attention.
Shortly after graduating from high school, Jennifer’s GRAND PLAN involved moving to the inner city and slinging pizzas. After several moves and job changes, she ended up taking night classes at William Jewell College, earning a degree in psychology. She got a job in human resources, but spent her time hiding in her cubical pounding out poems and stories instead of working.
After writing her first book, she took it on her first in-person pitch to an agent. The agent told her no one would buy the book with Jennifer’s “midwest voice.” Jennifer went home, cried for hours, stuck the book in a closet, and started writing again.
Now a published author and award-winning humor columnist, Jennifer still makes her home in Kansas City with her husband, three active kids, two cats, a boxer pup, and basset hound.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview : Tara Lazar
Also by Jennifer Brown:
Torn Away. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 2014.
Perfect Escape. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 2012.
Bitter End. Little, Brown and Company. 2011.
Hate List. Little, Brown and Company. 2009.
read more!
Bitter End by Jennifer Brown
After her mother dies in a car accident, Alex’s father grows aloof, and now Alex is searching for a real relationship. When she meets Cole, she thinks she has found her perfect soul mate. But Cole is demanding, and over time, turns abusive. All her friends dislike Cole, but she constantly makes excuses for him. Alex desires to be loved, but is Cole the person she is looking for?
Blaze by Laurie Boyle Crompton
Blaze only wants Mark the “Soccer Stud” to notice her, as a girl, not as Josh’s nerdy sister who draws comics and likes superheroes and supervillains. When Mark humiliates her publicly, however, Blaze plans to get revenge the only way a geeky girl knows how: making herself into a hero, and Mark into the supervillain that needs to be taken down.
Leftovers by Heather Waldorf
Sarah’s father was a daytime TV chef, and he choked to death on a piece of steak. That day was the best of Sarah’s life—finally free from his abuse! Or not. A year later, Sarah still finds herself haunted by her father’s legacy. Acting out, she finds herself in trouble with the law and sentenced to community service working with shelter dogs—which may be her salvation.