MEDIA RELEASE

Contact:  Shannon Hitchcock

[email protected]

For Release February 1, 2013

A North Carolina Family’s History of Tuberculosis
Sparks a New YA Novel
(Gently and lovingly written, says Publishers Weekly)

The Ballad of Jessie Pearl wraps you like an old quilt in the traditions, tastes, and dialect of rural North Carolina.

It’s 1922, and Jessie has big plans for her future, but that’s before tuberculosis strikes. Though she has no talent for cooking, cleaning, or nursing, Jessie puts her dreams on hold to help her family.

Shannon Hitchcock

She falls in love for the first time ever, and suddenly what she wants is not so simple anymore.

The Ballad of Jessie Pearl,
by Shannon Hitchcock

Publication Date: February 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60898-141-0
$18.95
Published by Namelos

YA author Shannon Hitchcock grew up in rural North Carolina on a 100-acre farm. She got the idea for The Ballad of Jessie Pearl when her son interviewed family members for his eighth grade history project. One of the stories he collected was of his great-grandmother’s sister who died from tuberculosis. She left behind a ten-month-old baby and a letter planning her own funeral. That bit of family history captured Ms. Hitchcock’s imagination and inspired her book.