WHEN MY HEART JOINS THE THOUSAND

Pitched as ROSIE PROJECT for teens, this brand-new teen novel by a YA writer might just be a little less jaunty and more soulful than the comparison immediately suggests...

Alvie Fitz has a brilliant, beautiful mind that happens to function a little differently, and that "differentness" has made for 17 tough years. After a not-so-successful youth spent in foster care, Alvie has been authorised to live independently on a probationary basis. Paying taxes is just about the only clue that Alvie is a member of society: her "social time" is spent alone with her laptop glorying in the obscure laws of quantum physics, or in the company of the National Geographic chanel. This doesn't bother her, but it does bother her social worker - and that bothers Alvie, because her case is up for review next month, and she can't face going back to a foster home. Then one night, partly to appease her social worker, partly for other, more complex reasons, Alvie sends a one-line email out into the void, destined for a boy whose lost property she's found. It's an unexpected email with an unexpected consequence: Stanley writes back. The online correspondence quickly snowballs into something neither of them ever counted on, and watching girl and boy fall for each other is touching, difficult, and funny. Along with all the obvious chasms to be bridged, Alvie and Stanley are both carrying some pretty heavy baggage. The secrets are big and potentially damaging. Alvie's are about her past, and Stanley's are about his present. And when the floodgates start to open, the impact might take them both down with it... AJ Steiger was born in Burbank, Illinois, and grew up in the Chicago area, graduating from Columbia College in Chicago where she majored in Fiction Writing. AJ is in her early thirties, likes dogs and craft beer and considers the term "nerd" to be a badge of honor.