From National Book Award-winning Kimberly Willis Holt, a historical middle grade novel set in 1948 in which a young girl writes letters to country-music star Hank Williams to cope with turmoil at home. It’s 1948 in Rippling Creek, Louisiana, and Tate P. Ellerbee’s new teacher has just given her class an assignment: learning the art of letter-writing. Luckily, Tate has the perfect person in mind for a pen pal: Hank Williams, a country music singer-songwriter whose star has just begun to rise. Tate and her aunt and uncle listen to him on the radio every Saturday night, and Tate just knows that she and Hank are kindred spirits.

Told entirely through Tate’s hopeful letters, this new novel from National Book Award-winning author Kimberly Willis Holt gradually unfolds a story of overcoming tragedy, of family love, of small-town gossip, and of a young girl learning to find her voice.