Publishers Marketplace: Bonnie Shimko

LETTERS IN THE ATTIC (Academy Chicago Publishers, 2002) Hardcover
For rights information contact Academy Chicago (800.248.READ)
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"Letters in the Attic is a gem. While coming to terms with her own budding sexuality, Lizzy poignantly and fiercely navigates the unsteady waters of her mother's complex pursuit of love. I couldn't put the book down and cheered her on the whole way. Letters is a biting and compassionate look at the vulnerability of coming of age and the triumph of coming into one's own." --Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls
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"What a storyteller Bonnie Shimko is. I love it!" --Betty DeGeneres
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"Winning debut describes a young girl coming of age during the 1960s...[An] amusing tale notable for its sharp and quick-witted tone. Brisk, fun and good-natured." --Kirkus Reviews
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"Letters in the Attic is hilarious, heartbreaking and hopeful." --Julia Watts, author of FINDING H.F.
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"Letters in the Attic is a lovely, absorbing book with unique, well-developed characters." --Lambda Book Report
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"Evocative and heartfelt, a seesaw of rue and longing, of hopes realized and expectations smashed." --Jane Summer, author of THE SILK ROAD
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"Shimko's tough young heroine demonstrates how to survive loss, puberty and first love. A powerful and startlingly witty story." --Emma Donoghue, author of SLAMMERKIN
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"Lizzy's sassy tongue and keen insight into her mother hold the reader's interest." --Girlfriends magazine
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"I recommend this upbeat coming-of-age story to all young people, gay and straight, and to those who care about them." --Ellen Bass, author of MULES OF LOVE
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"The entire cast of characters is well-drawn, but what's especially enjoyable about LETTERS IN THE ATTIC is Lizzy herself as a wise and wise-cracking narrator." --Eleanor Edmondson, President, Bas Bleu Bookseller-By-Post
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"This commendable first novel would be a worthy addition in any library." --VOYA
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"There are enough surprises in this appealing story to keep things interesting." --Publishers Weekly
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"A tender story of a girl grappling with dawning teenhood." --Robert Bernstein, author of STRAIGHT PARENTS, GAY CHILDREN
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"Three cheers for Bonnie Shimko, whose masterful, insightful storytelling sweeps us from page to page on an emotional adventure through adolescence that is engaging, satisfying, and ultimately inspiring." --Eric Marcus, co-author of BREAKING THE SURFACE and author of WHAT IF SOMEONE I KNOW IS GAY?

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Front Cover Flap
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Lizzy McMann is a feisty twelve-year-old who lives with her mother and Manny, her father (she thinks), in a fleabag Phoenix hotel.
One night, Manny's sudden announcement that he wants a divorce causes mother and daughter to move to upstate New York to live with Lizzy's grandmother and grandfather -- a mixed blessing.
At school, Lizzy befriends, then falls in love with Eva Singer, who is dyslexic, looks like Natalie Wood and lives right down the street.
Like all girls her age, Lizzy has to deal with her first period, her first bra and her first boyfriend. But what scares her most is her love for Eva.
She is also concerned with getting a new husband for Mama -- especially after reading Mama's letters in the attic. Then Eva gets a boyfriend and Mama's life enters what seems to be a new crisis. How Lizzy comes to grips with life's strange twists and turns makes for fascinating reading.

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Excerpts
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"After Mama, I help myself to a cake -- so fresh my thumb sinks into it. I look over at poor Mama with her mouth full of sweet. A sudden shiver passes through me, and I wonder if a free cake is God's apology for a broken heart."
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"This must be a mistake. The inside of this house doesn't go with sunshine and flower boxes and a smooth green lawn. It goes with sadness and brown. The smell hits me in the face like a slap. It's mothballs and cabbage and Vicks and old grease. It's unwashed curtains and Evening in Paris perfume. I hold my breath as long as I can to keep it from becoming part of me. But in the end, it wins and forces its way into my body like a prowler sneaking in a window and leaving its dirty fingerprints on my insides."
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"Is this your first period?" the nurse asks, leaning toward me close, talking softly.
I nod. Then, as if her words have pushed the sad button on my heart, tears I didn't know were coming spill onto my cheeks and huge sobs grab hold of my body and shake the daylights out of it.
I think how a few minutes ago I was a kid, and now I'm a woman who can get pregnant. I don't think God should spring important things like that on you whenever He feels like it. You should have time to get used to the idea, and then when you're ready you say, Okay, now!"
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"A snippet of jealousy pinches my heart when I think how Eva has fallen in love with her psychiatrist. "His name is Steve," she tells me after her first visit. "It's really Dr. Hudson, but he wants me to call him Steve, can you believe it?" I make my face look as if I'm thrilled for her. "Lizzy, he's major handsome, fall over on the floor good looking and not old either, right out of college, I think."
"Wow!" I say, wondering what his wife looks like and where his kids go to school.
"I think he has a crush on me," she gushes.
I send my real thoughts to bed without any supper and say, "Wow" again.
"He even keeps me longer than my hour...well, really fifty minutes because they have to have time to rest between patients. When the timer rings, he doesn't pay any attention. He just lets me go on talking until I'm finished what I have to say."
I think how she's like a newborn puppy -- all blind and needy.
"He told me I'm one of the most interesting girls he's ever met, maybe he said the most interesting, I can't remember."
"That's great," I say. And here is what I say to her in my head. He gets paid to say things like that. Twenty-five dollars a pop!
"And look," she says, holding out a piece of paper. "He even gave me his own personal answering service number in case I need him after office hours. All I have to do is call, and he'll call me right back."
I feel like grabbing that paper out of her hand and smacking her over the head with it for being so naive. "That's really nice of him," I say. "He sounds terrific."
"He's dreamy, that's what he is. I can't wait for a week to go by so I can see him again. I just have to think up some really sick-sounding stuff to say so he'll keep making me come back."
My brain is tapping its foot. "That's good," I say. "I'm glad you like him."
"Like him! He's absolutely..."
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"I'm not speaking to God. Since Mama went back to Phoenix I have not said one single solitary word to Him. If I weren't so scared that He might do something even worse, I would give Him a piece of my mind like how He should be ashamed of Himself for messing around with people's lives just when they're going in the right direction. How hard could it be for Him to look down and say, All right now...those folks look mighty happy. I guess I'll just leave them alone and go whip some criminals into shape. My grandmother still makes me go to church, but when the preacher starts in with the God stuff, I pretend the inside of my head is a jukebox and I listen to the top ten."
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"Well, Mr. Pine doesn't know what he's talking about. The box step will not get you anywhere as far as slow dancing is concerned. I think gym teachers should stick to teaching things you do in a gym and not mess around with people's social lives. I'm at the reception and I'm really doing a job on Mr. Stephens' new shoes.
"Oh, sorry," I say again after I have done front together when I should have glided sideways.
"You're doing fine," he says. "Just relax, let yourself go loose. That's the way."
Well, for goodness sake. When you stop telling your feet where to go, they brush the chip off their shoulder and cooperate. I think the school should have Mr. Stephens be the dance teacher. If you get taught a thing in a kind, patient way, your stubborn brain will say, Okay, this I'll do."
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"Hearts are funny things. They can be so broken and dead for such a long time, and then, when something comes along that's just right - a song maybe - they come alive and put themselves together like nothing bad ever happened."

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"When she gives me the phone, I smile and let my hand touch hers softly. Before I say hello to Grammy Brand, I think now that Mama has trusted me with her secret, maybe someday I'll be able to tell her mine."