Shelter Book

Hello, little metal box. Welcome to my world.

Sky thinks filming her sixteenth summer for a school project will end up being a lame home video, rated G for everyone. She's wrong. Her video diary is about to record her family coming unglued. Her mom, Barbie, has hired men to secretly build the "basics" to keep the family safe. "Basics," as in bomb shelter. Didn't people stop building those years ago? "I prefer the term fallout shelter," her mom says. Word choice is everything, isn't it?

Once the shelter has satisfied Barbie's desperate craving for safety, she turns a blind eye to the fallout as Sky and her twin brother, Will, find dark places inside themselves, giving into their underground temptations. (This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.) Before long, Sky starts to realize that the shelter poses a bigger threat to her family than the world outside ever did. Shelter is anywhere but there.

Shelter's screenplay set-up quickly draws readers in to explore the powerful and mystifying bond between twins. When Sky's teacher talks her into making a video diary over her 16th summer, Sky doesn't expect to be chronicling her family's disintegration. The stage is set when Sky and her brother realize that the backyard shelter is the perfect place for their summer exploits. Sky's authentic, sardonic voice-overs smoothly navigate through the minefield of adolescent angst and create an engrossing video time capsule.
(Children's Frontlist, Fall 2006)