Dear Reader

March 6, 2017
Columbia-bound senior Flannery Fields is anxious to trade Connecticut for New York City. When her AP English teacher disappears, leaving behind her purse and a worn copy of Wuthering Heights, Flannery sets out on a whirlwind quest to find her. Flannery is stunned to find that the book has inexplicably transformed into Miss Sweeney’s diary, with new entries popping up as the teacher searches N.Y.C. for a young man named Brandon, who Flannery discovers has been killed in action in Afghanistan. As she chases an increasingly unbalanced Miss Sweeney through the city, Flannery is joined by Heath Smith, a charming boy on a gap year, who seems oddly similar to Wuthering Heights’s Heathcliff. O’Connell (The Sharp Time) neatly juxtaposes Flannery’s anticipation for the “adventure, reinvention, to become someone new” with Miss Sweeney’s journal entries, illuminating the complex chaos of life and love, demonstrating that seemingly inconsequential choices and people can have lingering effects. The use of Wuthering Heights intensifies the impact of Flannery and Miss Sweeney’s corresponding journeys; even readers who haven’t read the classic will find significance in the parallels. Ages 12–up. Agent: Lisa Bankoff, ICM.

Flannery Fields's beloved AP English teacher, Miss Sweeny, is missing. Flannery gives the police the purse found at the teacher's desk but keeps Miss Sweeny's well-read copy of WUTHERING HEIGHTS. When Flannery discovers the book is actually a diary of Miss Sweeny's activities, she skips school and heads to Manhattan to find her cherished teacher. Saskia Maarleveld narrates the story in two voices, Miss Sweeny's and Flannery's. As her diary is read aloud, Miss Sweeny provides a myriad of clues to her disappearance. Maarleveld gives her a smooth and slightly breathless voice. Flannery tells her own story, which Maarleveld delivers straightforwardly. Maarleveld also captures Flannery's efforts to balance her concern for Miss Sweeny and her attraction to a boy who offers to help. N.E.M. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine