Status: Out on submission.
This book won a Florida Writers Association Royal Palm Literary Award in 2023. (Silver, Middle Grade/Unpublished category.)
Roxie Parco has awesome writing and roller-skating skills. What she doesn't have is a way to stop Pippa's Roxie-Can’t-Hear Public Service Announcements. She needs her classmate to quit it now, before they move up to sixth grade. This kind of attention in middle school is the last thing Roxie needs.
A spectacular solution manifests itself on Career Day. The local newspaper is having a contest, and they will publish the best student essay about a local event! Roxie is desperate to be that star reporter so Pippa has something else to talk about besides her hearing. And with the cash prize, Roxie would finally be able to afford the leopard skates she and her BFF want to buy. Matching skates will look awesome in the skate videos they post on social media.
Roxie agrees to a favor her teacher requests, only to discover she misheard what it was. Holy cannoli! Now she’s paired up with Pippa for the rest of the school year. And when Pippa’s twin meddles, Roxie could lose not only her big writing opportunity, but her best friend as well.
Status: Going through edits.
An earlier version of this book won a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Rising Kite Honorable Mention.
Eleven-year-old Roxie has a hearing disability and a massive imagination. She also has the knack of getting herself into wacky situations.
Like when she auditioned for the camp play by improvising a monologue and somehow got cast as Mushroom #1. Or when she misheard her new neighbor’s directions and threw out their kid’s entire toy collection.
Now Roxie has to deal with the neighbor's toyless kid (who happens to be her counselor's niece). Plus, a camper who’s focused like a high-beam flashlight on Roxie’s hearing missteps. Worst of all, her best friend got the role Roxie wanted and might get to kiss her big crush onstage!
Add to this the feeling she has to catch up fast after one of the campers shows off budding boobs, and holy cannoli! Roxie didn’t expect her summer to be like this.
But Roxie's about to discover something her Magic 8-Ball didn't predict. She’s got more guts and more heart than she ever imagined. And nothing—nothing—is going to hold her back.
Also included in each book is a delicious recipe mentioned in the story, Roxie's tips for communicating with people who don't hear, a list of famous people who have hearing loss, and some interesting hearing facts.
How can I buy your books? I've searched the entire Internet and can't find them.
Getting a book traditionally published takes a long time. Like Chutes and Ladders time.
Know that game? You work your way around the board, and finally reach the top of a ladder. Whoo hoo!
Next thing you know, you're whooshing down a chute.
In publishing, finishing your book is the top of the ladder. The chute is when you need to revise it. Or when an editor nicely rejects it.
But I'm close to staying up on that ladder, folks. Very, very close.
So, to answer your question: Neither book has been contracted to a publisher—yet. But if you send me your email through my contact page, I pinky-swear you will be the first to know when it happens. Then we can whoo hoo! together.
What made you decide to write about a hard-of-hearing fifth grader?
Hard-of-Hearing and Deaf kids are under-represented in literature. My goal, as a deaf author, is to raise awareness about hearing loss with a strong main character who doesn't let anything stand in her way.
Roxie is a highly motivated kid who just so happens to be hard-of-hearing. Fake Friend Fiasco and Roxie Jean, Drama Queen! are about close friendships, pre-teen drama, love crushes, school issues and special family connections.
Wait ’till you meet Roxie's Grandma! You're gonna love her.
Are the characters in your stories real people?
Yes and no.
While my plots are fiction, I wrote Roxie from my own experiences as a profoundly Hard-of-Hearing kid in a hearing world.
Other characters are based on real people, or a combination of people. Part of being a writer is observing people and absorbing their mannerisms, speech and behavior.
I will say this: Grandma Parco, with a little embellishment, is based on my grandmother. Her storyline, however, is pure fiction. She never ran off to Atlantic City, that I know of.
I may be wrong.