A letter from Sara Pennypacker, author of HERE IN THE REAL WORLD
Available 2.4.20
Dear Reader,
“Open your eyes. Here in the real world, bad stuff happens,” Jolene admonishes Ware repeatedly. She’s right, of course: These days, devastating blows to environmental, social, and economic justice seem to play out in an endless media loop. Middle grade kids can’t be protected from knowing about it, but they don’t want to be, anyway, because they care. My observation is that they want to be informed, and then they want to do something.
Some, like Jolene, dig in with whatever resources they can scrape up. Some, like Ashley, know what to do and how to do it right away. And some, like Ware, first dream of making a grand gesture before realizing that most progress comes from humble actions “around the edges.” Their responses might not seem heroic, but I am so moved by how eager kids are to step in, to address whatever they can of an injustice. Here in the real world, Jolene, Ashley, and Ware are what heroes look like to me.
Sara Pennypacker
ABOUT THE BOOK
From the author of the highly acclaimed, New York Times bestselling novel Pax comes a gorgeous and moving middle grade novel that is an ode to introverts, dreamers, and misfits everywhere.
Ware can’t wait to spend summer “off in his own world”—dreaming of knights in the Middle Ages and generally being left alone. But then his parents sign him up for dreaded Rec camp, where he must endure Meaningful Social Interaction and whatever activities so-called “normal” kids do.
On his first day Ware meets Jolene, a tough, secretive girl planting a garden in the rubble of an abandoned church next to the camp. Soon he starts skipping Rec, creating a castle-like space of his own in the church lot.
Jolene scoffs, calling him a dreamer—he doesn’t live in the “real world” like she does. As different as Ware and Jolene are, though, they have one thing in common: for them, the lot is a refuge.
But when their sanctuary is threatened, Ware looks to the knights’ Code of Chivalry: Thou shalt do battle against unfairness wherever faced with it. Thou shalt be always the champion of the Right and Good—and vows to save the lot.
But what does a hero look like in real life? And what can two misfit kids do?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sara Pennypacker is the author of the highly acclaimed, New York Times bestselling Pax; the award-winning Clementine series and its spinoff series, Waylon; the acclaimed novel Summer of the Gypsy Moths; and the picture books Meet the Dullards, Pierre in Love, and Sparrow Girl. She divides her time between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Florida. You can visit her online at www.sarapennypacker.com.
Praise for
HERE IN THE REAL WORLD
“Pennypacker’s humane tale is written with straightforward grace and populated with exquisitely layered characters; vulnerable, imaginative Ware’s journey to self-acceptance is particularly skillfully rendered.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Pennypacker tells a human story of growth and transformation. Smooth prose and short chapters make for a compulsively readable tale, fit for middle-graders in the process of discovering themselves."
— Booklist