Description

WINNER OF THE CHRISTOPHER AWARD - A heartwarming coming-of-age tale that explores the journey of self-discovery that comes with growing up.
"A terrific mix of imagination, insight, character inventiveness and kindness create the kind of read that nourishes young minds and hearts."--Kirkus Reviews
"A fantastic book. . . . Pat Murphy's wonderful girls are as real and as lovable as characters get."--Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club

Twelve-year-old Joan is sure that she is going to be miserable in her new home. Then she meets a kindred spirit: Sarah, who prefers to be called "Fox" and who lives with her writer father in a rundown house in the middle of the woods.

Joan and Sarah--Newt and Fox--spend all their spare time outside, talking and fooling around, and soon start writing stories together. When they win first place in a student fiction contest, they're recruited for a prestigious summer writing class taught by a free spirit named Verla Volante.

The Wild Girls is a stunning novel about friendship, the power of story, and how coming of age means finding your own answers--rather than simply taking adults on faith.