The Possibility of Now

All her life, Mara James has been the perfect daughter and the perfect student, winning a scholarship to a prestigious private school and staying on track to be valedictorian. Then she has a meltdown during a calculus test, an event someone tapes and shares online. Humiliated and shamed, Mara leaves San Diego to spend a semester with her biological father, a ski bum in Tahoe whom she hasn’t seen in nearly a decade. In a story about finding the delicate balance between hard work and fun, pleasing others and pleasing oneself, Culbertson (Catch a Falling Star) introduces a fragile heroine who embodies all the traits of a workaholic living for the future instead of the present. Other archetypal characters include Isabel, an Olympic hopeful with goals as lofty as Mara’s; Beck, a rich, spoiled rebel at odds with his conformist father; and laid-back Logan, who wins Mara’s heart. Anyone who has felt the pressure to be number one will empathize with Mara’s struggle to accept setbacks, move forward, and feel the joy of spontaneity. Ages 12–up. [em]Agent: Melissa Sarver White, Folio Literary Management. (Jan.) [/em]