Johanna Parkhurst

Author, teacher, other things. Johanna Parkhurst grew up on a small dairy farm in northern Vermont before relocating to the rocky mountains of Colorado. She spends her days helping teenagers learn to read and write and her evenings writing things she hopes they'll like to read. She strives to share stories of young adults who are as determined, passionate, and complex as the ones she shares classrooms with. Johanna holds degrees from Albertus Magnus College and Teachers College, Columbia University. She loves traveling, hiking, skiing, watching football, and spending time with her incredibly supportive husband.

Thanks a Lot, John LeClair

By Johanna Parkhurst

Here's to You, Zeb Pike

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A Companion to Here's to You, Zeb Pike

On the surface, life looks pretty good for sixteen-year-old Emmitt LaPoint: he’s popular, doing well in school, and he’s poised to lead his small-town Vermont hockey team all the way to the state championship—and that’ll lead to attention from scouts. Emmitt might manage to follow in the footsteps of his hockey hero, John LeClair, who he’s been secretly writing to for years.

But beneath the perfect façade, Emmitt is struggling. All he wants is to hold on to the two things he loves: hockey and his boyfriend, Dusty. But Emmitt’s absentee father has recently returned to breathe down his neck, and not everyone is eager to see him succeed. Few people in town know Emmitt is gay, and it’s getting harder to stay in the closet. On top of everything, Dusty seems to be hiding his own secrets.

Every Inferno

By Johanna Parkhurst

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A Harmony Ink Press Title

Depressed. Defiant. Possible alcoholic. These are just a few of the terms used to describe fifteen-year-old Jacob Jasper Jones. Lately, though, JJ has a new one to add to the list: detective. He’s been having strange dreams about the fire that killed his parents ten years ago, and he thinks he finally has the clue to catching the arsonist who destroyed his family.

A murder investigation isn’t the only thing the dreams trigger for JJ. They also lead to secret meetings with his estranged sister, an unlikely connection with a doctor who lost his daughter in the fire, and a confusing friendship with McKinley, a classmate of JJ’s who seems determined to help him solve the mystery.

All JJ wants is to shake the problems that have followed him since that fire, and he’s convinced he must catch the arsonist to do it. But as JJ struggles to find the culprit, he sees there’s more than one mystery in his life he needs to solve.

Here's to You, Zeb Pike

By Johanna Parkhurst

Here's to You, Zeb Pike

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A Harmony Ink Press Title

Fact: When Zebulon Pike attempted to climb what is now known as Pikes Peak, he got stuck in waist-deep snow and had to turn back.

That's the last thing Dusty Porter learns in his Colorado history class before appendicitis ruins his life. It isn't long before social services figures out that Dusty's parents are more myth than reality, and he and his siblings are shipped off to live in Vermont with an uncle and aunt they've never met.

Dusty's new life is a struggle. His brother and sister don't seem to need him anymore, and he can't stand his aunt and uncle. At school, one hockey player develops a personal vendetta against him, while Emmitt, another hockey player, is making it hard for Dusty to keep pretending he's straight. Problem is, he's pretty sure Emmitt’s not gay. Then, just when Dusty thinks things can't get any worse, his mother reappears, looking for a second chance to be a part of his life.

Somehow Zebulon Pike still got the mountain named after him, so Dusty's determined to persevere—but at what point in life do you keep climbing, and when do you give up and turn back?