Rhode Island resident Pamela Lowell has just released her first young adult novel, Returnable Girl, published by Marshall Cavendish. This young adult novel features an unlikely heroine — Ronnie Hartman, a teenage girl in foster care, churning through multiple placements before landing in a place she can finally call home. Along with giving voice to a girl on the verge of being rejected at every turn in her life, this book also portrays teen bullying, particularly the pernicious forms of girl teenage bullying, and issues as tough to handle as sexual abuse and gun violence.

Returnable Girl is a wonderful accomplishment — an eye-opening read for both teens and adults — and a vivid and heart-rending portrayal of the complex emotional life of Ronnie as she struggles with the instability of her past and future. As a social worker and an erstwhile fiction writer myself, I appreciate how difficult it is to enter into the experience of a foster kid, and how much harder still it is to try and write about this experience. Ms. Lowell combines her gift for emotional attunement to foster kids with skilled writing to break new ground in her fiction — taking readers deep into the foster child experience, an experience rarely portrayed and almost never portrayed accurately.

I am amazed by this book and hope that Ms. Lowell will have the courage to continue her writing, reaching into the human experiences — the chaos, the grace, and everything in between — upon which social workers have a unique view.

More information about the author and the book is available at www.pamelalowell.com.