- US Edition
The Perfect Place
Poignant, funny, and beautifully crafted, THE PERFECT PLACE is a debut middle-grade novel that packs a fresh and emotional punch.
Treasure Daniels longs for a home. A home with a mom and dad, lilac walls, and the smell of food cooking. But Treasure hasn’t had a home in years, not since her father left and her mother started running – from bill collectors, landlords, her past and her present.
Then Grandma Celeste steps in. Enough is enough – Treasure and her little sister are going to live with Great-aunt Grace until their mom finally sorts herself out. But life in stifling Black Lake, Virginia, is even worse than Treasure had imagined. Segregation still lingers, and Great-aunt Grace is a nightmare, with her cigarettes, her four-hour church services, and her rundown candy store where the girls are expected to work every day after school.
It’s not long before Treasure’s had enough. But then she witnesses Grace standing up for her in a way she’d never imagined, and begins to see Black Lake in a different light. After being on the run for so many years, Treasure has found a home where she’d least expected – a home that will change her, and her idea of what family really means, forever.
Rights details
Good news
Bank Street Best Books for Children 2015
THE PERFECT PLACE has been named of one of Bank Street’s Best Books for Children 2015.
The Author
Teresa E. Harris
Teresa E. Harris (she/her) earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Columbia University and an MFA in Writing for Children from Vermont College, where she won numerous awards, including the Flying Pig Grade-A, Number-One Ham Humor Award. She is the author of the picture book Summer Jackson: Grown Up, several American Girl books, and the middle grade novel The Perfect Place, which was selected as one of Bank Street’s Best Children’s Books of the Year in 2015 and about which Jacqueline Woodson said, “What an amazing debut! I loved it.”
Teresa once worked in children’s publishing, but took a publishing hiatus to focus on her work as a high school English teacher in New Jersey. She now spends most of her time grading papers, hanging out with her two cats Baxter and Nox, and building new–and familiar–worlds with her words.
Teresa is represented by Chelsea Eberly.