I read about The Girl I Wanted to Be, by Sarah Grace McCandless, in a Washingtonian magazine article about local authors. I hadn’t heard of McCandless before, but The Girl I Wanted to Be, her second novel, looks pretty good. It’s about a 14 year-old Michigan girl who learns disappointing truths about the adults in her life, including her beloved aunt, while trying to make her way through high school. From Amazon: “McCandless writes in an authentic adolescent voice about a young person’s attempts to reconcile her own intuition and experiences with the patronizing doublespeak and contradictions in the adult world.” Here’s a review from the Detroit Free Press, which calls The Girl I Wanted to Be “miles ahead of most.”
I found this interview with Sarah Grace McCandless on the Conversations with Famous Writers blog. McCandless has some interesting things to say about how she became a writer and how she developed the plot for the book. Also some good references to her favorite coming-of-age books, movies and TV shows.
I also found two sites about Sarah Grace McCandless herself – her official site and her blog. If you’re intrigued by her book, check out her blog as well. She’s a pop culture junkie, like me, and I found a lot of entertaining stuff in there. (And she loves The Office too!).
What’s your favorite coming-of-age book?