About this item
One young woman's journey to find her place in the world as the carefully separated strands of her life - family, money, school, and love - begin to overlap and tangle. All sixteen-year-old Izzy Crawford wants is to feel like she really belongs somewhere. Her father, a marine, died in Iraq six years ago, and Izzy's moved to a new town nearly every year since, far from the help of her extended family in North Carolina and Puerto Rico. When Izzy's hardworking mom moves their small family to Virginia, all her dreams start clicking into place. She likes her new school - even if Izzy is careful to keep her scholarship-student status hidden from her well-to-do classmates and her new athletic and popular boyfriend. And best of all: Izzy's family has been selected by Habitat for Humanity to build and move into a brand-new house. Izzy is this close to the community and permanence she's been searching for, until all the secret pieces of her life begin to collide.How to Build a Heart is the story of Izzy's journey to find her place in the world and her discovery that the choices we make and the people we love ultimately define us and bring us home.
About the Author
Maria Padian is a "from-away" Mainer (meaning she calls Maine home but was born in New York) and award-winning author of young adult novels. A passionate bookworm who can't keep up with the stack on her night table, she worked as a freelance writer, essayist, broadcast journalist and congressional aide before turning full time to fiction. Her debut novel, "Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress" (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2008) was chosen by the ALA and YALSA as one of the Best Books for Young Adults in 2009 and also received a Maine Literary Award and Maine Lupine Honor Award. Other books include "Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best," (Knopf BFYR, 2011) "Out of Nowhere," (Knopf BFYR, 2013) and "Wrecked," (Algonquin YR, 2016.) A graduate of Middlebury College and the University of Virginia, Maria plays USTA league tennis, gardens, skies, drinks too much coffee, loads logs into her wood stove and walks her Australian Shepherd when she's not hanging out with imaginary people. She lives on Maine's midcoast with her family and can be found at www.mariapadian.com.
