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Jacqueline Woodson

Dear Reader,

The first time I read Go Ask Alice, I was twelve years old. For some reason, I thought it was a book I should be reading secretly. There was something dangerous about it as though the diarist was whispering her story solely to me.

BENEATH A METH MOON whispers a similar story. When I first started writing it, the voice of Laurel Daneau, came to me as a whisper – her soft southern drawl recounting a story of a love lost and an addiction gained. I saw her brilliantly white-blond hair, her delicate hands, her confusion. I heard her grandmother's laughter, felt her mother's love. And slowly, I saw the tragedy of meth sneaking toward her. As I wrote and rewrote this book, my experience of reading Go Ask Alice came back to me. As a child, that book changed me forever. I was terrified of heroin and knew it was a drug I'd never experiment with. Writing BENEATH A METH MOON produced a similar experience. At the end of Go Ask Alice, the diarist dies. I knew one thing – I did not want Laurel Daneau to die.

BENEATH A METH MOON is Laurel Daneau's story. It is a story about a young girl from Pass Christian, Mississippi and a story about the people who save her. But more than that, BENEATH A METH MOON is the story of Laurel's deep and beautiful resilience.

Thanks for reading it.
Jacqueline Woodson
www.JacquelineWoodson.com