about the book
To understand Ava Lavender, a girl born with wings, one must understand her family. Hers is a family tree full of heartbreak.
Her great-grandmother, Maman, emigrated from France, her husband disappeared, and two of her children met tragic ends.
Her grandmother, Emilienne, lost her three siblings, mother, father, and husband.
Her mother, Viviane, had a childhood love who did not love her back.
And Ava? She and her twin brother have been isolated in their home, prompting her to sneak out at night with her neighbor Cardigan. But then she starts to fall in love with Cardigan’s brother.
Couldn’t Ava have been born without wings and not destined for sorrow?
about the author
Leslye Walton was born in the Pacific Northwest. Growing up she was incredibly naive about the ways of the world. Everyone else seemed to have received a guidebook with all the rules of adolescence, but she just got skipped over.
The most obvious time this happened was in fourth grade when the class was playing a game the required a list of everyone’s favorite things, such as favorite music, favorite store, and favorite candy. Leslye didn’t realize she was supposed to have a favorite candy! She ended up copying her best friend’s answers.
While researching for her debut novel, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, she spent a lot of time at local bakeries learning their inner workings. A consequence of this was eating tons of pastries, or as she puts it, “[eating] her way through the city.” What she didn’t realize was that she is gluten intolerant, and eating all the pastries was why she was so sick while writing Ava Lavender.
Leslye teaches middle school students how to read, write, and be kind to one another (especially when they don’t feel like it).
Leslye has a master’s degree in writing and lives in Seattle, Washington.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: School Library Journal
read more!
Above by Leah Bobet
Matt is the Teller of Safe, an underground sanctuary for the strangely formed and the merely strange, who keeps alive the stories of the world above. In love with Ariel, a frail girl with bee wings, Matt is horrified when an old enemy somehow finds a way into Safe. Now Matt, Ariel, and their friends must find a way to live in the world above again.
The Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Book 1) by Laini Taylor
Karou speaks many languages, some not of the world. She works for a creature, collecting human teeth for his experiments. Searching for her heritage, Karou meets the angel Akiva, who is searching for something as well. With Akiva’s help, Karou begins to learn about herself and the part she is to play in the timeless war between angels and demons.
Gifts (Annals of the Western Shore, Book 1) by Ursula K. Le Guin
In the community of Caspromant where each family has its own unique defensive gift, Orrec blinds himself rather than use his violent gift of “unmaking.” His actions upset the precarious balance of power between the rival families and open the door to the realization that the gifts can be used for healing as well as for weapons.