Girls Like Her

“Keeps you guessing until the very last page. Sumrow’s brilliantly-conceived novel is a harrowing journey into child sex trafficking and the United States legal system—and a complicated character study in which how someone is perceived is just as consequential as who they are. Masterful.” — Eliot Schrefer, Printz and Stonewall Honor-winning author of The Darkness Outside Us”Girls Like Her is a compelling study of the impossible choices faced by millions of young girls today. In this heartbreaking and hopeful story, Melanie Sumrow reminds us to look and listen to those who need it most.” — Brandy Colbert, award-winning author of The Blackwoods“A gut punch.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)“Sumrow crafts suspense through a compelling, patchwork narrative that combines fictional press releases, letters, notes, legal memos, and close third-person prose. Skilled pacing transforms a typical ripped-from-the-headlines premise into a nail-biting investigation of financial precarity and child sex trafficking.” — Publishers Weekly”Reads like true crime. An eye-opening depiction of the criminal justice system’s treatment of young, vulnerable citizens.” — Kirkus Reviews”Sumrow add[s] sobering authenticity to this gripping legal drama. A nonlinear timeline and fictionalized materials that foretell a plot twist add interest and suspense to Ruby’s story of falling through the cracks and, unlike so many others, eventually being found.” — Booklist“Keep[s] readers hooked with a desire to find out Ruby’s side of the story, and what the verdict of [her] trial will be. For fans of emotionally intense reading, like Ellen Hopkins’s Crank and books by Tiffany D. Jackson.” — School Library Journal

Melanie Sumrow is the author of the novels The Inside Battle, a 2020 New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, and The Prophet Calls, a 2018 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award finalist. Before turning her attention to writing, she worked as a lawyer for more than sixteen years, many of her cases involving children and teens. She received her MFA from Hamline University’s writing for children and young adults program and lives in Dallas.