Dear Miss Posie

By Sara Madden

Ruth Wilder has spent her life in a world without mirrors.

Raised in a close-knit Amish community in rural Illinois, Ruth knows who she is supposed to become: a good daughter, a faithful member of her community, and eventually the wife of Jacob Sullivan, the steady boy who has loved her since they were twelve.

Then Ruth leaves for Rumspringa.

Chicago is everything home is not-loud, glittering, restless, and endlessly reflected through screens. When a stranger records Ruth answering a question about freedom and tradition, the clip goes viral overnight. Suddenly, a girl with no social media presence is being watched by thousands of people who believe they understand her.

Garrett Bronson sees an opportunity.

Young, brilliant, and fluent in the machinery of online attention, Garrett helps Ruth create Dear Miss Posie, an anonymous advice column built around something the internet rarely encounters: a voice that isn't trying to sell anything.

It becomes a phenomenon.

But visibility has a cost.

As Miss Posie's audience grows, Ruth finds herself caught between the community that formed her and a digital world determined to turn her into a symbol. Her words are clipped, repackaged, praised, attacked, and sold back to strangers. Her growing connection with Garrett complicates the quiet certainty she once shared with Jacob. And back home, Ruth's twin Joshua is carrying a truth about their identity that their community may not yet have the language to understand.

Then Ruth discovers that the water beneath her family's land may be carrying a secret of its own.

Now the girl everyone comes to for answers must confront questions no advice column can solve.

Who owns your story once the world begins telling it for you?

Can you question where you came from without betraying it?

And how do you choose between the person who sets you on fire and the person who has always known your name?

Dear Miss Posie is a thoughtful coming-of-age novel about first love, family, faith, identity, environmental justice, and the dangerous seduction of being seen. At its heart is a young woman discovering that authenticity isn't a brand, tradition isn't necessarily a cage, and finding your voice means deciding what-and who-you are willing to use it for.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 194650548X
• ISBN13: 9781946505484
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Sara Madden
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 13 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary