The First Day of Spring HC

The First Day of Spring HC352 pages Hardcover A riveting page turner about what propels one 8 year old girl to commit an unspeakable act, and the tensely moving effect it has on the rest of her life especially once she has a child of her own. Chrissie is eight years old and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling of it made her belly fizz like soda pop. Across her neighborhood, Chrissies playmates and their parents are tearful and terrified. But Chrissie rules

352 pages | Hardcover

A riveting page-turner about what propels one 8-year-old girl to commit an unspeakable act, and the tensely moving effect it has on the rest of her life - especially once she has a child of her own.

Chrissie is eight years old and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy.The feeling of it made her belly fizz like soda pop. Across her neighborhood, Chrissie’s playmates and their parents are tearful and terrified. But Chrissie rules the roost - she’s the best at wall-walking, she knows how to get free candy, and now she has a secret, thrilling power she doesn’t get to experience much at home, where food is scarce and attention scarcer.

Twenty years later, Chrissie has a new identity and a new name. As “Julia,” she is working in a cafe to support herself and her six-year-old daughter, Molly. All she wants is a fresh start, but the past hasn’t seemed to let her and Molly alone, and when, suddenly, their future together is threatened, Chrissie/Julia must find a new way to take matters into her own hands.

Nancy Tucker leaves the reader breathless as she considers what happens when innocence and survival instincts collide. Tucker writes from professional experience in pediatric mental health, and she inhabits the voices of her young protagonists with a shocking authenticity and precision that moves the reader from sympathy to humor to horror to heartbreak and back again.

Story Locale: Northern England