Introducing Evelyn Shine, a writer for children who is thrust onto a national stage as the unlikely campaigner against book banning. Irresistible and life-affirming.

All that New Jersey housewife Evelyn Shine has ever wanted to do is write stories for kids, stories that understand them, stories that see them. A young mother, unfulfilled in her marriage, she decides to take a night class called 'Writing for Young Readers'. It is 1968 and, on the heels of social upheaval, the question of what is deemed 'appropriate writing' for children is suddenly up for debate. Evelyn soon discovers her voice chronicling the intimate lives of girls, drawing from her daughter's experiences, as well as her own teenage diaries.

Fifteen years later, Evelyn is a target in a new wave of cultural backlash and finds herself a reluctant player in the shifting political (and corporate) landscape. It's 1981, and her publisher sets her up to debate the reigning queen of the radical right on national television. She wakes up to discover she's become a lightning rod for those who believe that many books, including her own, should be banned from the very children they were written for. When attacks on books turn into attacks on people, Evelyn must decide whether to speak out or stay silent, with consequences not only for herself, but for the whole nation.