Become an Agent #2

Title: Poison Pen
Genre: MG Literary Fiction/Coming of Age
Word Count: 54,000 words

Query:
Twelve year old Lydia already learned that popular girls have it easy when they picked on her at school for being a tattletale who dressed differently. But day camp is different because she is surrounded by a close-knit group of supportive friends.

She feels honored when her friend Jackie wants to share a secret with her—until she hears it. Jackie wrote a letter that says “I hate you. You must die,” to their friend Mindy. Lydia regrets promising not to tell anybody when Mindy misinterprets the letter as a prank, and sends off her own letter to someone else.

Lydia agonizes over making the right decision: she must choose whether to break her promise and risk losing Jackie’s friendship; to keep her promise and risk other friends she values; and whether if it’s even worth the trouble to stay friends with Jackie in the first place. She is still debating what to do when the camp director discovers the truth and kicks Jackie out of camp, on what happens to be the last day for the rest of their friends.

Now that she’s alone at camp, Lydia must learn to stand up for herself against a bully—something she realizes too late that she should have done with Jackie. She earns the bully’s respect, but rejects an offer of friendship. She realizes that it’s better to have a few reliable friends than a large group of who cannot be trusted.

POISON PEN is a 54,000 word work of middle grade literary fiction, with series potential. It’s set in Northern New Jersey in the early 1980’s.

250:

“There’s a hole in the fence around here somewhere,” commented Mindy. We walked in silence along the length of the fence until she discovered the hole.

Mindy squeezed through the fence first, followed by Cecilia.

“He said he’d meet us at the pavilion,” said Mindy.

“Who?” I asked.

“Eddie from Boys 7.”

“Why Eddie?” I asked.

I’d known Eddie, as well as Mindy and Cecilia for the past three summers since I started at Camp Minnewaska, but we’d never really talked.

“He’s cute,” answered Cecilia.

I climbed through the hole in the fence carefully, and looked around. The asphalt paths of the abandoned camp were pitted with potholes, and littered with crushed beer cans, broken glass, and the occasional discarded mattress.

“Hi Eddie,” said Mindy and Cecilia together.

All I could manage was a simple, “Hey.”

“Is this your first time coming here?” he asked.

“This is the best part of camp, escaping and coming here,” said Mindy.

“Mindy was only here once last summer. Lydia and I have never been here but my brother has been here lots of times and told me all about it,” answered Cecilia.

We walked in silence to a small building with a sagging roof. Mindy and Cecilia walked on either side of Eddie, with me trailing behind. Eddie pushed the door, which made a loud groan and opened slightly.

It was mostly dark inside, with diagonal stripes of sunlight streaming in through gaps in the boarded windows. A powerful stink of mildew with a whiff of ammonia filled the dusty air.

Title: Poison Pen
Genre: MG Literary Fiction
Word Count: 54,000 words

Query:

Twelve-year-old Lydia would rather spend the afternoon reading in the bathroom than play field games, and that’s usually what starts her trouble with bullies. Camp is different though. For the first time in her life, she’s part of a close-knit group of friends who don’t like sports much either. Even better, the counselors don’t really seem to care if the campers slip away from the group to do their own thing, such as exploring the abandoned summer camp on the other side of the woods.

Lydia just can’t wait for her friend Jackie to come home from vacation and join her group of friends at Camp Minnewaska. The rest of the group is leaving soon, and without Jackie’s company, she’d have to deal with Melissa, an overly competitive bully, by herself. Plus Jackie’s famous pranks are just what Lydia needs to liven up the summer.

When Jackie asks Lydia to keep a secret, Lydia is thrilled—until she hears it. Jackie wrote a threatening, anonymous letter to a mutual friend. Lydia agonizes over the choice between breaking her promise to keep a secret she knows is wrong; losing Jackie’s friendship; or keeping the promise and losing the rest of her friends.

Completed at 54,000 words, POISON PEN is a middle grade literary novel with series potential. It’s set in Northern New Jersey in the early 1980’s, and is peppered with pranks, ghost stories, scavenger hunts, day trips, and a first kiss.

First 250:
“There’s a hole in the fence around here somewhere,” commented Mindy.

We walked in silence along the length of the fence until she discovered the hole. Mindy squeezed through the fence first, followed by Cecilia.

I climbed through the hole in the fence carefully, and looked around. The asphalt paths of the abandoned camp were pitted with potholes, and littered with crushed beer cans, broken glass, and the occasional discarded mattress.

“He said he’d meet us at the pavilion,” said Mindy, bending over and whipping her head back to fluff up her feathered hair.

“Who?” I asked.

“Eddie from Boys 7.”

“Why Eddie?” I asked.

I’d known Eddie, as well as Mindy and Cecilia for the past two summers since I started at Camp Minnewaska, but he and I had never really talked.

“He’s cute,” answered Cecilia. She was picking some leaves off of her shirt, and tucking it into her shorts in a way that emphasized her chest. “He’s over there, in the pavilion, alright.”

We went over to the center of the camp where Eddie sat on a low brick wall, idly tossing a tiny red ball into the air and catching it in his baseball hat.

“Hi Eddie,” said Mindy and Cecilia together.

All I could manage was a simple, “Hey.”

“Is this your first time coming here?” he asked.

“This is the best part of camp, escaping and coming here,” said Mindy.

“Mindy was only here once last summer. Lydia and I have never been here but my brother has been here lots of times and told me all about it,” answered Cecilia, trying not to be outdone.