The Moth Girl
Anna is a regular teenaged girl. She runs track with her best friend, gets good grades, and sometimes drinks beer at parties.
But one day at track practice, Anna falls unconscious . . . but instead of falling down, she falls up, defying gravity in the disturbing first symptom of a mysterious disease.
This begins a series of trips to the hospital that soon become Anna's norm. She's diagnosed with lepidopsy: a rare illness that causes symptoms reminiscent of moths: floating, attraction to light, a craving for sugar, and for an unlucky few, more dangerous physical manifestations.
Anna's world is turned upside down, and as she learns to cope with her illness, she finds herself drifting further and further away from her former life. Her friends don't seem to understand, running track is out of the question, and the other kids at the disease clinic she attends once a week are a cruel reminder that things will never be the same.
From debut author Heather Kamins comes a beautiful and evocative story about one girl's journey of choosing who she wants to be--in a life she never planned for.
Hearther Kamins
Heather Kamins grew up in New York and Massachusetts, and has an MFA in creative writing (fiction) from Mills College in Oakland, CA. Her debut novel, The Moth Girl, is forthcoming from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in various journals, and her poetry chapbook, Blueshifting, was published by Upper Rubber Boot Books (2011). She is the recipient of an Artist Fellowship in fiction from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a Donald Axinn Returning Contributor Award in fiction from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She enjoys creating characters and worlds that explore the strange and unusual, and believes that sometimes the strangest world of all is this one.