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Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go: 1/24/2015

Hi this is Betsy from Otto’s.  A survivor of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, has written a novel for young adults called Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go.  Fifteen year old Magdala lost her mother under the rubble of their home.  Magdala and her cousin, Nadine, who also survived, were so similar in age and looks that they were taken for twins and they shared everything. When Nadine’s father gets a visa for Nadine to move to Miami, Magdala is left with a distant uncle who patches pieces of the rubble into a shack on the former soccer field in Port-au-Prince. The squalid condition of the camp is only matched by the devastation of Magdala’s heart when she realizes she has lost everything and everyone she loved. A year later, her uncle takes her and the body of her mother to the small village where she had been born. Food is plentiful and numerous relatives try to fill the void in Magdala’s heart. But her uncle insists on taking her back to the capital where maybe, someday, she can finish her schooling. The surprising last chapter will leave you breathless.  Hold Tight, Don’t Let Go—you’ll find it at Otto’s a booklover’s paradise in the heart of downtown Williamsport