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RFH 2010, Arts

Natasha Friend's Newest Book Hits the Shelves

Thu, Apr 08, 2010

Natasha Friend spent her childhood and most of her teen years in Hamilton. Now she is writing about teenagers in her first "young adult" book, For Keeps, which was just released.

Natasha Friend's Newest Book Hits the Shelves

Natasha Friend's debut "young adult" (YA) novel is now on the shelves.

The Hamilton native's latest book -- For Keeps -- has been issued by Viking, and the author says she is peased to be joining the ranks of YA writers.

A review of For Keeps in Booklist, a magazine for librarians choosing books for their stacks, says of the book:

"Growing up in Elmhurst, Massachusetts, high-school junior Josie is close with her single-parent mom, Katie, 33, who got pregnant as a teenager. Mother and daughter have a lot of fun together, sometimes switching roles, but then Paul, the father Josie has never met, comes back to town. Will Josie run into him? Why did he leave after he found out Katie was pregnant and never contact them again? Did he want Katie to have an abortion? With the mother-daughter relationship at the core of this lively novel, the contemporary story also weaves in many subplots about Josie’s romance with her boyfriend and her friendship with her best pal, Liv, who has a happy family with two gay dads. Is Liv pregnant? Abortion is a recurring theme, and so is family. But this isn't just an issue-driven story. There is a real plot, filled with fast, immediate dialogue and secrets about Josie’s mother, father, and grandparents that continue to the novel's end."

On the day of her book's launch, the Hartford (CT) Books Examiner did a Q & A with Friend. It starts:

The daughter of an English professor father and a poet/actress mother, Friend developed a love of reading at an early age, spending much of her free time at the Hamilton Public Library in upstate New York.

For Keeps is available at the Colgate Bookstore.

 

 

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