While there was plenty I could learn from Anne Shirley or Harriet the Spy, I always longed to read about an actual tomboy like me – no long braids, no puffed sleeves, no growing up into a swan after an ugly duckling childhood. As a young reader, I always wanted a role model who didn’t grow out of her awkward phrase, who didn’t eventually find that it all just fell into place – because I…

(Please do not confuse the TEEN ANGELS book series with the single-season TGIF series "Teen Angel" that aired sometime around 1998, co-starring Ron Glass [Shepherd Book to you] as "Rod, God's Cousin." We will talk about "Teen Angel" [SINGULAR] at a later date.) The time was 1996. I was ten, and allowed to rollerblade down to the branch library by the lake (the small one near Pat's Pantry, half a mile away from the house, please…

Previously: It's a bunch of years after The War and everything is different. It was the first day of school and the last day of my sixteenth year. It was also the last day before everything changed, which made tomorrow the first day that everything was different, and also my birthday. Nothing ever changes in this town, until the day everything changed for good. I've lived in this town my whole life, and everything's…