Publishers Marketplace: Joanne Levy

Streetwise (YA)

The most important things in Tasha Levinson’s life are her boyfriend, her upcoming trip to France with her best friend, being popular at Oakwood High and being thin and fabulous, although maybe not in that order.
But then her father suddenly dies, leaving Tasha and her mother with less than nothing, thanks to the credit crunch and a secret gambling addiction. Priorities suddenly change for Tasha who quickly realizes her mother is coming undone, spiraling down into a morass of grief and alcoholism. Naïve, broke, heartbroken and suddenly alone, Tasha ends up on the street with nothing but the clothes on her back and her determination to survive. Desperate, she enlists the help of an unlikely savior: a street-wise boy with terrible secrets of his own. Exposed to violence, poverty and hunger, it is on the street that Tasha learns the real meanings of the words survival, trust and love.

STREETWISE is a gritty, poignant story about loss, strength and the endurance of the human spirit.

Excerpt:

Prologue

The food smelled gross. The over-roasted meat covered in thick gluey gravy. The potatoes that were supposed to be mashed, but looked pureed. Mushy canned peas that were more gray than green.

But then the people came in and some of them smelled worse. Way worse.

And then some of them seemed normal. Too normal, like single moms wearing business outfits, kids in tow—not the kind of people you’d expect to see at a soup kitchen. And maybe that was even worse than the dirty people who you would expect to show up for a free hot meal.

I turned to Kylie. “I think we should have picked a different assignment.”

“I know. This is fucking heinous.” She looked down at herself. “And tell me what is with these plastic aprons?”

“It’s better than getting the food on you. Think about it.”

She nodded. “Good point. Hey, look. There are TV people here.”

I craned my neck to see where she was looking. Sure enough, there was a cameraman and a woman in a business suit with a mic in the corner, looking like they were setting up to film.

“Maybe we’ll get on TV,” I said.

Kylie clucked her tongue. “It’s not going to get you famous if you do.”

“I don’t want to be famous; I want to be an actress.” But yeah, I wanted to be famous.

Someone cleared their throat in front of me. I looked. It was a guy with his plate out, waiting for me to scoop him some potatoes. Even though he was young, he was probably the grossest and dirtiest person yet, looking like he hadn’t bathed in…well, ever.

God, it is disgusting and embarrassing to be serving these people, I thought.

And he smelled worse than anything; after one whiff, I held my breath.

I dished out a big spoonful of the white mush and dumped it on his plate while still keeping my eyes on the tray of food in front of me.

The guy shuffled down the line. “You’re welcome,” I said, rolling my eyes. How appalling that the guy couldn’t even grunt a thank you.

His head snapped back and he glared at me, looking right into my eyes, scaring me a little. I hadn’t really meant for him to hear me. Apparently his ears were clean enough.

“Fuck you, princess,” he said, so quietly I almost didn’t hear it above the din in the hall.

“Ungrateful asshole,” Kylie said to me, but really softly, just in case.

I quickly turned back to the huge tray of potatoes in front of me, burying the spoon in the mountain of slop. “No kidding. What a douche.”

Chapter 1

“Hey, Kid,” I hear and think I’m dreaming. But then I feel a weight on my arm and know I’m beginning the drift back into consciousness. I open my eyes, but they need a moment to adjust. It’s still dark in my room, but I can see the silhouette of my father, sitting on the edge of my bed. I must have been really out if I didn’t hear him knock, open the door or even feel him sit down beside me.

“What are you doing waking me up at godawful o’clock?” I ask, sounding a whole lot whinier than I mean to.

“I’m waking you up to say goodbye.”

I groan and roll over, away from him. It is way too early for this.

“Aw come on, Tash. Say goodbye to your old man.”

“Goodbye old man,” I grumble.

“You can do better than that. Aren’t you going to miss me?”

I groan again, roll back towards him and push myself up against my headboard. “How can I miss you if you won’t go away?” I say, but I’m smiling, because I will miss him. He goes to these conferences all the time, but I still never get used to him being away. Even though I’m old enough to drive, I still feel like Daddy’s little girl and look forward to his return when he leaves my mom and me for days at a time to fend for ourselves.

He laughs. “I’m going away in five minutes and then you can go back to sleep. My flight leaves in two hours, so I need to get a move on.”

“’Till when?”

“I’m back Sunday.”

“And what lame conference is this?” I ask.

“It’s a seminar for fund managers. Just boring stuff my teenage daughter really doesn’t care about,” he says with a wink.

“What will you bring me back?” I ask. This is a little game we play. A game we’ve been playing since I was old enough to notice him packing his bags to go away to his conferences.

“Probably nothing,” he says, predictably.

I roll my eyes. Last time he went away and said he wasn’t going to bring me anything, I got the Coach bag I’d not-so-subtly been pining for. “Yeah right.”

“Maybe not this time, Tash.”

I snort.

The smile dissolves from his face. “I’m serious.”

I look at his eyes. The crinkles that are normally at the corners when he laughs are gone. He’s not joking.

“Huh?”

“You’re a big girl; you don’t need presents every time I go away for a few days.”

I’m speechless. It’s like he’s saying I’m no longer his little girl. Which is stupid, but it makes my heart ache a little.

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.

He squeezes my arm. “Come on, don’t be upset. I mean more to you than just what I can buy you, don’t I? Isn’t enough that your beloved father who you look up to and love with all your heart will be returning home?”

“Of course,” I squeak out. “Does this mean you won’t be buying Mom anything, either?” I wonder how well that will go over. Not well at all, I’m thinking.

“She’s a big girl, too.”

I cringe. “Good luck with that.”

“Tash, it’s a tough economy. People are losing their shirts, companies are tanking. It’s irresponsible to go around spending indiscriminately when I manage people’s portfolios and they’re losing their life savings, their homes, everything they own.”

I get what he’s saying, but really, other people’s portfolios aren’t really high on my priority list. As long as my trip to France is still a go (and the wad of cash in my bank account says it is) I couldn’t care less what the economy is doing. Time to shut him down. “Dad, it is way too early to be having this heavy of a conversation. This is more of an after-dinner kind of subject.”

He takes a deep breath. “You’re right. Phil Levinson proverb number five hundred and four: no heavy financial conversations before sunup.”

“I like that one,” I say, sliding back down so I’m horizontal again. “Add it to the list. Have a good trip, Dad.”

“Phil Levinson proverb number one?”

I close my eyes. This one I know by rote. “Don’t worry, I’ll look after Mom while you’re gone.”

“Good girl,” he says, his voice getting close, but softer. He kisses my cheek. “You’re a good kid.”

His weight lifts from the bed. He is almost gone when I say, “Dad?”

“Yeah, kid?”

“I love you. Even though you’re acting like a cheapskate.”

He exhales through his nose loudly. “I love you too, kid. Even though I’ve spoiled you rotten.”

I smile and roll over away from him, sure he’s going to bring me back something really nice.

Street Wise Trailer

Rule of Nines (YA)
Sydney Levine is tired of being a nerdy junior whose idea of a good time is doing crossword puzzles and studying hard to get good grades. Determined to start living spontaneously, she decides to act on every Word of the Day e-mail that arrives in her inbox.

No matter what.

After a few stupid pranks, the word misanthrope brings her to Aidan MacKenna, the most mysterious guy in school. Not only is Aidan disfigured, scarred from burns he suffered in a fire, but he’s antisocial, with no friends at all and a demeanor that makes the guy in Saw seem like Mr. Rogers. Plus, many of the whispers at Somerset High say he was responsible for the fire that burned him and killed his sister and mother.
But now Sydney’s stuck with him as her partner for a term project.
Sydney doesn’t know what to believe about the rumors swirling around Aidan, but then suspicious fires start popping up in her town. As the fires get close to home and the police start looking for a serial arsonist, her suddenly not-so-boring life goes up in flames.

Rule of Nines Trailer

Legs - The Mermaid Chronicles Book 1 (YA)
Morven is looking to escape her destiny: getting engaged on her sixteenth birthday to the merman of her father’s choosing. Anti-love and anti-marriage, Morven craves seeing the land of humans before she is forced to accept her fate.

Matthew is just looking to survive high school. Bullied and virtually friendless, he can only find solace in the sea: visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium, caring for his own saltwater tank, and scuba diving on weekends. The two meet when Morven saves his life, disentangling him from a dense kelp forest. But they are literally worlds apart, their every minute together counted by Matthew’s dive computer. Determined to get to the surface to follow Matthew, Morven befriends a marine geneticist who lives in a research pod under the sea. When he’s not looking, she steals his secret formula that will enable her to transform into a human.

But only for eight days.

Just long enough to fall in love.

Misplaced(YA)

Pop Quiz: Hannah Goldberg is stressing out because:
A. She just moved to a new school where she knows exactly zero people
B. She looks Chinese but doesn’t fit in with the Chinese kids
C. She’s Jewish but doesn’t look like any of the Jewish kids
D. Her boyfriend dumped her because he doesn’t believe in long distance relationships
E. All of the above.

Answer: E

Hannah Goldberg is not your normal Jewish teenager, but she desperately wants to be. After moving from Toronto to a new town and being plunged into a new school where no one knows that she was adopted from an orphanage in China into a religious Jewish family, Hannah finds herself knee deep in an identity crisis. Where does she fit in? Who is she and what does she stand for? And how does her religion fit into everything?

At 54,000 words, Misplaced is a story about fitting in, and more importantly, fitting into your own skin.

Closets are for Clothes (YA)
Jessica Daniels is almost sixteen and has never been kissed. Her best friend Monica takes it upon herself to make sure Jessica gets her first kiss before her sixteenth birthday and even lines up the school hottie, Dave Harper to do the deed. The problem is, Jessica's not sure she wants her first kiss to be with a boy.

Jessica faces all kinds of upheaval when she finally admits the truth to herself and those she loves. She realizes quickly her greatest fear has come true; none of her relationships will ever be the same. With the help of Dave Harper and his two dads(!), she realizes that being gay does not mean you're a freak destined to live a life on the fringes of society.

Closets are for Clothes deals with the subject of being a gay teen with warmth and humor, providing the reader with a little guidance and the assurance that even though coming out can be the scariest experience in the world, you don't have to do it alone. This is a story not only about being gay, but about endurance, strength and the importance of being true to yourself.