Melissa Walker Earns Her Place in New York Times Book Review

Melissa Walker is adorable.  She's the author of five YA books, a sometimes guest on big TV shows, a name you'll find in the Times Style section, a magazine writer, a voice on NPR, and an observer of our times.  She is also out there on a daily basis telling the stories of how other writers' novels came to be, how they settled in with their jacket art.  A few years ago, when I knew few souls out here in the Land of Blog, Melissa made a video log after she read my second young adult book, House of Dance.  It made me cry.  Later, she gave me room to tell the cover art stories of several of my novels.  Melissa, moreover, is part of the reason that I had the good fortune to serve as the Readergirlz inaugural author in residence.  Melissa reaches out, is what I'm saying.  She reaches out all the time, even as her own career and fame and family grow.

For many reasons, then, I am here today celebrating Melissa's debut in the pages of the New York Times Book Review—a Carlene Bauer review of Small Town Sinners, Melissa's fifth book, debuting Tuesday.  It's a glowing review, noting, among other things:

Walker has written a credible and tender evocation of the moment when a young person’s beliefs begin to emerge and potentially diverge from the teachings of a family’s religion. Lacey’s blind faith may not be entirely understandable to those who have never believed as she does. But for teenagers raised in more evangelical homes, as I was, the character’s spiritual life will ring absolutely true. 

"YOU SO ROCK!!!!!" I wrote to Melissa, when I saw the review at 4:30 this morning.  And that's because she does.  A big blue ribbon to Melissa, then, on this happy day.