Julie Oleszek

Eighteen-year-old Anna is still learning how to live in the world outside Advocate Hospital where she spent months there as a psychiatric patient. As her high school friends and boyfriend Murph head off to college, Anna still struggles to overcome the wounds of her past while navigating the...

Charlotte and Simone have an unusual friendship. Charlotte is the daughter of James Worthington, a wealthy tobacco plantation owner and enslaver. Simone, the daughter of a slave, was taken from her mother’s arms and sold to James. When Simone arrives at Huntington Manor Plantation at seven...

Anna desperately needs her family, but how can a family who needs rescuing save her? Seventeen-year-old Anna, the ninth child of ten, has returned home after three months in a locked psych ward on the fifth floor of Advocate Hospital. Together with her parents and siblings, Anna struggles to...

Seven-year-old Anna was smiling when she was given the news. It’s not that she misunderstood what she heard, but her smile froze as her brain stopped thinking and her breathing slowed. To her older sister Frances, Anna’s smile looked like one of ignorance and foolishness, but both were...