It's time for a new generation to hit Newford's streets, so here's your introduction to Imogene and her best friend Maxine, a couple of outcasts at Redding High who find that getting pushed around by the other kids in school is the least of their worries. You'll find a cameo or two from old stalwarts, but mostly these are new faces and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed discovering the stories they had to tell. I hope you do, too.

The Blue Girl (Viking Books) is my first YA novel since 1991's The Dreaming Place. Cover art by Cliff Nielsen.