In this spirited, heartfelt debut, a devoted teacher and her irresistible students find power and freedom through a new kind of classroom, and through telling their own unforgettable stories.

Darlene LeJay is at a crossroads. After more than fifty years of playing (mostly) by the rules and doing what she can to help her students make their way, she is unjustly fired, her reputation damaged. The only job she can land is at a school even more down on its luck than she is. But where some might see trouble, Darlene sees opportunity—to teach the way she has always wanted.

In Miss Dee’s class at the Seton School for Girls, every lesson focuses on the students. She builds on their experiences, tunes them into their own voices. LaShae, Everline, Breezy, Pookie, Terese, Beau: their stories are hilarious, wise, haunted, proud, and filled with all the energy and yearning of a girl learning to become herself. But then Darlene’s ailing mother goes back to Georgia, stirring up whispers Darlene would rather forget. How is it that you can move across six states, live across six decades, and some things still haven’t changed? How is it that a girl still has to fight every day to survive? If Darlene is going to make change for her students, she will have to confront her past and risk her future.

The kind of complicated, vulnerable, steel-boned heroines who will speak to readers across time, place, and circumstance, Darlene and her girls bring lessons for us all. As much a joyful celebration of girlhood and friendship as it is a call to witness and action across generations, Jade Jones's Darlene is a love letter to all those who teach us how to stand up for ourselves—and each other.