EVERYTHING I WAS

"My walls were stripped, and all that was left in the room was a pile of boxes and my mattress propped against the wall."

So begins Irene's journey from an Upper West Side penthouse to well, she's not entirely sure where. Irene's investment banker father is "downsized" when his company merges with another. When he can't find work, her family's lifestyle and her socialite mother's spending quickly catches up with them. Eventually, they're forced to move in with Irene's grandfather in the big family farmhouse upstate. But what begins as the most disastrous summer of her life takes a surprising turn when she meets a most remarkable family.

Corinne Demas is the award-winning author of numerous books for children and adults, including two short story collections, three novels, a memoir, and a collection of poetry. Her picture books include Always in Trouble, Saying Goodbye to Lulu, and The Littlest Matryoshka (written under the name Corinne Demas Bliss). Her new novel, The Writing Circle, was published this past summer. She is a Professor of English at Mount Holyoke College and a Fiction Editor of The Massachusetts Review. She lives with her family, her dog, and two miniature donkeys in Western Massachusetts and spends the summer on Cape Cod. EVERYTHING I WAS is her first book for a young adult audience.