A friend writes that Park Slope writer Jane Kelley has a new young adult/early teen novel out — Nature Girl — and her first reading and book launch is Sunday, May 23rd at 11 a.m. at BookCourt in Cobble Hill.

Eleven-year-old Megan is stuck in the wilds of Vermont for the summer with no TV, no Internet, no cell phone, and worst of all, no best friend. So when Megan gets lost on the Appalachian Trail with only her little dog, Arp, for company, she decides she might as well hike all the way to Massachusetts where her best friend, Lucy, is spending her summer. Life on the trail isn’t easy, and Megan faces everything from wild animals and raging rivers to tofu jerky and life without bathrooms.

Most of all, though, Megan gets to know herself—both who she’s been in the past and who she wants to be in the future—and the journey goes from a spur-of-the-moment lark to a quest to prove herself to Lucy, her family, and the world!

Kelley lives in Park Slope. Her new book has been garnering good reviews and blurbs like this one:

“First-time novelist Jane Kelley uses the light touch of humor to let in the sunlight. Bravo!”—Sid Fleischman, Newbery Award–winning author.”