P.S. Tell No One on CTV Your Morning

I dropped by CTV Your Morning to talk all about my brand new book, P.S. Tell No One. Inspired by the books of Judy Blume, many summers working as a camp counselor, and years of conversations about periods, puberty, and all things middle school, I poured my heart and soul into this book. I hope readers will be entertained, reassured, and inspired to pass it on!

P.S. Tell No One Coming Feb 2023

Behold the show-stopping cover of my next middle grade novel, P.S. TELL NO ONE coming from Scholastic Canada in February 2023. All of my books are close to my heart, but this one is super special to me. For years I’ve referred to this as “my period book,” and while I dare you to find a middle grade novel with more talk of period products and menstrual blood, at its core, P.S. TELL NO ONE is a book about connection and conversation, and how both things are the antidote to shame.

When I was in grade six, my friends are I were part of a pass-around diary. Instead of passing notes, we wrote down our thoughts, feelings, worries, and plans and discussed them at great length in a series of journals. In their pages, we could say things that were too hard to say aloud. In P.S. Tell No One I wanted to recreate that safe space. In Twix, Hoops, MP and Sunny, I hear echoes of myself, my friends, and the kids in my life.

This book is designed to look and read like a diary. It features brilliant design choices from Yvonne Lam and amazing spot art from Holly Allerellie. Trust me, you’ve never seen a cuter rendition of the female reproductive system. Just look at this full cover. That Lisa Frank colour palette, the pad (with wings!), the energy and spirit of the girls in the polaroid…it’s perfect and I couldn’t love it more. The background also happens to be very similar in colour to the frames of the glasses I wore in middle school. What can I say? In the 90s we lived for teal!

Cover design by Yvonne Lam, cover art by Holly Allerellie

When kids have questions, especially sensitive ones, they often turn to books. Followers of this blog know that I have long been mystified (and miffed) and the absence of periods in middle grade fiction. I keep an updated list of middle grade books with periods in them here. The gold standard, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, is great, but it’s 52 years old. My hope is that P.S. Tell No One will be a raft for a new generation of kids who find themselves treading in the rocky waters of puberty. Full of humour, nitty-gritty facts, and real talk, P.S. Tell No One is the kind of book kids will pass on to each other and say, “You HAVE to read this!”

There are lots of fun things in the works for P.S. Tell No One, so stay tuned for giveaways, events, and fun goodies. In the meantime, you can pre-order: