Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

Alaine Beauparlant, 17, is the ambitious, impulsive, and highly opinionated first-generation Haitian-American daughter of divorced parents. Months shy of high school graduation, her future plans hit turbulence after an incident involving her political journalist mother and an overfamiliar politician. Following a poorly executed plot to defend her mother’s honor against judgmental schoolmates at her private school, Alaine is suspended and sent to Haiti to volunteer with a charity app created by her aunt, the Haitian Minister of Tourism. There, Alaine comes face-to-face with family secrets—and curses—she’s never known. Written as a series of intimate personal letters and emotional diary entries from Alaine, her mother, and her female ancestors, the Moulite sisters’ well-conceived debut is an alternately funny and bittersweet story of loss, regret, love, and sacrifice, centered on the fictional female descendants of real-life Haitian queen Marie-Louise Coidavid. Seam- lessly blending story lines and allusions to Haiti’s history and culture, the authors create an indelible, believable character in Alaine—naive, dynamic, and brutally honest—who stretches and grows as her remarkable, affectingly rendered family relationships do. Ages 13–up. Agent: JL Stermer, New Leaf Literary & Media. [em](Sept.) [/em]