Book Launch! Sharon G. Flake "Hattie Mae Begins Again" (w/ Anea Michelle)

We are ecstatic to host award-winning author Sharon G. Flake in-store to celebrate the publication of her newest middle grade novel: Hattie Mae Begins Again! Sharon will be joined in conversation by Anea Michelle.

From the three-time Coretta Scott King Honor winning author of The Skin I’m In comes a poignant story about a southern girl far from home at an elite girls boarding school in the north, who must find the courage to be herself and to dream of a brighter future, set against the backdrop of the great migration in South Philly.

You can be what you want in life.

Climb as high as you wish.

Nothing can stop you,

not even pedigree.

Hattie Mae is from Seed County, North Carolina. She knows hard work: milking cows, plucking chickens, minding the garden. Her hands are made for manual labor, her feet for dirt—that is, according to Lisa and some of the girls at Miss Abigail’s School for Exceptional Young Ladies in Philadelphia. In their eyes, Hattie Mae will never break into upper society and is unworthy of becoming a doctor or a lawyer.

Though Hattie Mae sticks out like a sore thumb and has more in common with the hundreds of Black folks pouring into the city looking for better opportunities during the Great Migration, she knows that she belongs. She just has to prove it to the rest of the girls—and maybe even to herself.

A moving coming-of-age story about finding the courage to be yourself, chasing your dreams, and lending a hand to others along the way.

ANEA MICHELLE is a writer, editor, and English adjunct professor with an MFA in Creative Writing. Anea is also the founder of the PGH Book Club, and is passionate about building literary community and cheering other writers toward their goals.

SHARON G. FLAKE is best known for her ground-breaking novel The Skin I'm In which changed the way many Black girls viewed themselves. Considered a modern classic, this best-selling novel is used in classrooms worldwide and studied by experts in the field of education and literature. Flake is the best-selling author of over a dozen books, with more than 1.5 million in print on six continents. She has won numerous awards and recognition by the pillars in the publishing industry, including having her work named a Kirk’s Prize finalist. Her books continue to empower and shine light on teens and communities often underrepresented in publishing.

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