Growing Up Minnesotan: Vanessa Torres and Gary Eldon Peter
2:30pm, Progress Center
YA literature excels at portraying those pivotal moments when we find the freedom to be ourselves. Join two authors who convey these moments against the backdrop of Minnesota locales, in all their midwestern glory.
Vanessa Torres presents her debut novel The Turning Pointe (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers), a story about sixteen-year-old star ballerina Rosa Dominguez who wants to break free from her pointe shoes and audition as a dancer for Prince.
“You won’t forget this incredibly compelling story that goes beyond a girl just finding out who she is—but how to be the change the world isn’t ready for yet. A must read for anyone with a heart.”
—Dante Medema, author of The Truth Project
Gary Eldon Peter presents The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen (Fitzroy Books), a novel set in a small, Minnesota dairy farm where fifteen-year-old Carl confronts his crush on the recently transplanted “city boy” Andy, while also facing the family’s financial instability.
“With insight and grace, Gary Eldon Peter explores the big questions: Who am I? Who will I be? And who will I let truly know me? This novel’s gentleness is underlain with the absolute determination of a quiet teenager’s quest for self-identity.”
—Alison McGhee, author of Where We Are and What I Leave Behind